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ROUMANIA 

YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 

BY MRS. WILL. GORDON, F.R.G.S. 
WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND TWO 
CHAPTERS BY H.M. THE QUEEN OF 
ROUMANIA, AND ILLUSTRATIONS 



"Over thy creation of beauty there is a mist of tears." 

Tagop 



LONDON : JOHN LANE THE BODLEY HEAD 
NEW YORK : JOHN LANE COMPANY MCMXVIII 



PRINTED BY W. BRENDON AND SON, LTD., PLYMOUTH, ENGLAND. 



TO 

HER MAJESTY QUEEN MARIE 

WHOSE SELF-SACRIFICE AND UNFLINCHING COURAGE 
HAVE BEEN AN INSPIRATION. 

TO ROUMANIA'S HEROIC ARMY 
HER PATIENT INDOMITABLE PEOPLE 

WHOSE VALOUR AND FORTITUDE 
UNDER UNSPEAKABLE TRAGEDY AND SUFFERING 
HAVE EARNED THEM UNDYING RESPECT 
AND ADMIRATION 
I DEDICATE THIS BOOK 



ROUMANIAN PROVERBS 



" Do not dip your spoon into the pot that does 
not boil for you." 

" One crow never pecks out another's eyes." 

" Work is a golden bracelet." 

" Better an egg to-day than an ox to-morrow." 

" Money is round and rolls easily." 

" Blessed are the hands that knead the bread." 

" Protect me, Lord, from my friends ; as for my 
enemies, I shall take care of them myself." 

" Where the head does not work the legs suffer." 

" Life is a dream of youth, realized as age 
ripens." 



AUTHOR'S NOTE 



EUROPE is in convulsion. Like as it were a 
great melting-pot, all are being tested in the 
stern crucible of fire, and history is being forged 
from hour to hour. But amid the carnage and 
horror of battle the souls of the mutilated little nations 
shine out, haggard and crucified, but with a spirit inex- 
tinguishable and superbly serene in honour and faith 
unquenchable. 

Of the terrible fate meted out to Belgium, Serbia, 
Roumania, and Montenegro, Roumania seems to me the 
supreme tragedy, for she was brought into the conflict 
by treachery and the same Power has remorselessly 
abandoned her to her fate. 

This book has been written in the hope of bringing 
a sympathetic interest, a closer understanding of our 
heroic Ally to the great English-speaking race, who 
though fighting with the vast width of Europe between 
them are suffering and dying for the same ideals. Many 
of the illustrations are from photographs graciously sent 
by Her Majesty Queen Marie, who has also contributed 
two chapters and the touching and wonderfully pathetic 
introduction. It stands in the forefront of the book, 
chronologically incorrect perhaps, but it is where it 
should be. It is a poignant and inspiring human docu- 
ment that will not fail to awaken the tenderest com- 
passion in all those who read of the sufferings of our 
desolated Ally, forced by a bitter fate to a hated peace, 
but whose national soul and faith are un vanquished. 

The royalties on its sale will be devoted to Roumanian 
Relief Funds. Winifred Gordon. 

Marck, 19 1 8. 

ix 



CONTENTS 
PART I 

YESTERDAY 
INTRODUCTION 

BY H.M. THE QUEEN OF ROUMANIA 

Bucharest — Hospital in the Palace — Sufferings of the winter — 
Retreat of the Army — Jassy, difficulties of organization — 
Want of supplies — Heartrending distress — Arrival of English 
and French help — The Queen's memories — High hopes — The 
gathering clouds — Flight — Jassy — Organizing hospitals — 
Uphill work — Some splendid examples of devotion — A 
wonderful French doctor — Help from the Grand Duchess Cyril 
— Terrible winter conditions — Difficulties of communication — 
Army quartered on the miserable starving villages — Death 
and misery stalking hand in hand — Gratitude for help — 
Faith in the Allies ...... \ . 

CHAPTER I 

A LAND OF BEAUTY 

The beauty of the Carpathian ranges — A pastoral scene — Wal- 
lachia, the great granary of Eastern Europe — Belgium of 
the East — Vivid contrasts — Gipsies — An outcast race — The 
music of the land — Harvest-time — The " guardians of the 
babes " — Papes or priests — A Bishop must divorce — Peasant 
homes — Early weddings — Abduction — The marriage chest — 
Beautiful clothes — Fine needlewomen — The close of the day 
— An evening scene — The prayer — National type — Striking 
and interesting — Devotion to the land — Agrarian system — 
Leprosy of Turkish rule — Unscrupulous Jews — Religious 
observances — Fasting two hundred days in the year — 
Village festivities — Pagan customs ..... 

CHAPTER II 

A LATIN OASIS 

The gay capital — A city of pleasure — Luxurious palaces — The 
Royal abodes — Cotroceni — Sinaia — The King's collection of 

xi 



xii ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 



Old Masters— Intellectual development — Byzantine influence 
— Riches and treasure from the convents and monasteries — 
Old crosses at Cotroceni Palace — Modern intellectual growth 
— Entertaining in the social world — A Latin race — French 
and English, the two influences most desired — The Aristocracy 
— Conversational activity — National traits of character- 
Roumanian women of the upper classes — Their vivacity and 
grace — Well appreciated freedom on marriage — Influence of 
the Queen — The peasant woman— The soul of Roumania — 
Roumanian intellectual culture — Some of her poets and men 
of letters 23 



CHAPTER III 

THE BIRTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF A NATION 

A Roumanian proverb — Early history — Sixteen centuries of 
bloodshed — A Latin country but a Balkan Power — Origin of 
the race — Dacian period — Decebalus — The reflections of 
Herodotus and Ovid on the people — Trajan's conquest — 
Becomes a Roman province — Wise rule — Progress and size 
of the country — Abandonment by the Romans — Successive 
waves of conquering barbarians — Founding of the Princi- 
palities by Radou Negrou and Dragosch — Evolution by war 
— Some of the great rulers of the past — Princes Mircea — 
Stefan — Michael the Brave — Vassalage under Turkey — Greek 
influence — Bassarab and Vasile — Rude justice — Terrible 
penalties — Sherban Cantacuzene's reign — Phanariot regime — 
A land sweating blood — Seventy Hospodars in one hundred 
and five years — Vicious and luxurious life of these rulers — 
Their consorts' jealousy and extravagance — Divorce — A few 
good ones— Looking to Russia for help, but vainly — Hope 
from the French Revolution — Treaty of Paris — Union of the 
Principalities — Grant of a Constitution — First National 
Prince — Couza — Noteworthy reforms — Irregular private life 
— Abdication — Offer of throne to Count of Flanders — 
Acceptance by Prince Carol of Hohenzollern — Deplorable 
condition of the country — Good progress — Marriage of Prince 
Carol to Princess Elizabeth of Wied — Carmen Sylva — Her 
beauty, character and literary attainments — Story of the 
Cathedral of Curtea de Arges — Death of the Princess Marie — 
Prince Ferdinand's marriage to Princess Marie of Edinburgh 
— Great progress of the country — The Army — Russo- 
Turkish War — Loss of Bessarabia — Agrarian problem — 
Industrial and commercial riches — Roumanian finances — The 
Senate and Chamber of Deputies — M. Bratiano — M. Tak6 
Jonesco — Roumania proclaimed a Kingdom — King Carol's 
political miscalculation ....... 46 



CONTENTS 



xiii 



CHAPTER IV 

THE HEART OF ROUMANIA 

PAGE 

arly travellers in Roumania — William Harebone — The pictur- 
esque beauty of the country — Line of the Danube — Aspect 
of the country — Sinaia — Campulung — The Dobrudja — No 
man's land — Queer peoples — Sunken waters — Curious am- 
phibious life in the Delta — The floods — Bond between 
Roumanian and the soil — Paganism — Spirits of the air, earth 
and water — Psychology of the Roumanian — Four influences 
which have affected him — Dacian strain — Slav blood — Greek 
— And its four grades — Hellenic— Byzantine — Phanariot — 
Grecoteiul — Phanariot as active agent for the French culture 
— Women of this period — France as a model — Wallachs — 
Gypsies — Jews of Kazan breed — Attitude of the peasantry 
to Jews .......... 75 



CHAPTER V 

THE WOOF AND WARP OF HER DESTINY 

The Near Eastern question — A whirlpool of contending forces — 
First seeds of Prussian influence in Roumania — Lack of 
confidence in Russia— King Carol's policy — German penetra- 
tion of finance and industry — Germany's bid for Drang nach 
Osten policy— -Roumania 's attitude in the Balkan War — 
Ferdinand of Bulgaria — The jackal of the Teuton and the 
Turk — Wooing of the Turk by the Kaiser — A poisonous diet — 
German policy — Austrian intrigues in the Balkans — A fossil 
i in the modern world — " No Austrian nation " — The Balkans 
as Austrian Federal States — The Emperor's Secret Service 
' Agent — Some disclosures — The award of Salonica a bitter pill 
I, for the Teutonic Powers — A Diplomatic success — John Bull's 
| apathy — Serbia the guardian of the gate — Our debt to 
Roumania — Roumania's position, politically and geographi- 
cally — Transylvania — Roumanian Irridenta — The great 
question — To be, or not to be — Exiled brothers — Oppression 
1 — Take Jonesco and Cogalniceanus' words of hope and faith 
I — Attitude to Roumania's exiled peoples — National aims . 108 

j CHAPTER VI 

THE GREAT DECISION 

A momentous time — King Carol's secret treaty — Sidelights into 
secret history of the period — Count Czernin's famous Austrian 
Red Book — The ultimatum to Serbia — Austria and Rou- 
mania's neutrality — Crown Council at Sinaia, August, 191 4 — 
Opposition of the Roumanian Government to the King's 
policy — The King's chagrin — Appeal to the Army — Czernin 
and Baron Burian — King Carol's unhappiness — Decision for 



xiv ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 



neutrality — Unpreparedness for war — German propaganda 
and intrigue in Roumania — The Press — Marghiloman — Take 
Jonesco — Filipesco — Baron von dem Bussche, German 
Minister at Bucharest — Distinguished Teutonic Diplomats — 
Nursing the country — Death of King Carol — King Ferdinand's 
succession — Bratiano, the sphinx of the East — Negotiations 
with Petrograd — Offer from the Central Powers — Necessary 
caution — Bulgaria's equivocal attitude — Her " pedlar " King 
— Fall of Belgrade — Excitement in Bucharest, demonstration 
for intervention — Promise of support from the Entente 
demanded — Events moving rapidly — The German Minister's 
dramatic interviews with the King — The Crown Council at 
Cotroceni Palace— Memorable scene — War declared — King 
appeals to the nation and Army— The Rubicon crossed . 129 



PART II 
TO-DAY 

CHAPTER VII 

FROM MY SOUL TO THEIRS 

Departure of the soldiers for the front — Offerings of flowers — 
Loyal devotion — Among the wounded — Enthusiasm and hope 
—A dying wish — For those beyond the shadows . . .149 

CHAPTER VIII 

ACROSS THE BARRIER 

Sinaia on the outbreak of war — Excitement in the gay world 
there — Hurried departure — Feverish conversion of villas into 
Red Cross hospitals — The first brilliant successes in the 
Carpathians of the Roumanian Army — The plan of campaign 
— A difficult decision — Bulgarian treachery of character — 
Roumania's armies well over the ranges and into Transylvania 
— A deadly counter-stroke — Bulgaria attacks — Murder of 
General Jostoff — Mackensen's advance in the Dobrudja — 
Fall of Turtukai — Silistria — Roumanian front of one thousand 
miles too great a strain on her small army — Size of army — 
None of the promised Russian assistance arrives — Machina- 
tions and holding of supplies by the Petrograd Stuermer 
Government — Roumania's splendid fight against overwhelm- 
ing odds — Death of Prince Henry of Bavaria — Fall of the 
Cernavoda Bridge — Port of Constanza — Retreat from the 
Carpathians — Desperate fighting in the Passes — Bavarian 
rout — Fall of Craiova, " the millionaire town " — Enemy 
advancing on the capital on three sides — Heroic devotion of 



CONTENTS 



xv 



the Orsova group — Detachment under General Anastasiu, and 
their surrender — Wanton Bulgarian savagery at Giurgevo — 
General Averescu in supreme command — Arrival of two 
divisions of Russian troops — Battle of the Arg6s — General 
Socescu's treachery — Line pierced — Road to the capital open 159 

CHAPTER IX 

WRECKING A NATION'S WEALTH 

The great oil fields — Falkenhayn's hungry sweep towards them — 
A terrible decision — British mission of advice under Col. Sir 
John Norton Griffiths, k.c.b., d.s.o., m.p. — Evacuation of the 
valleys and factories — Destruction of the factories and wells 
— A dangerous work — -A panorama of horror — Cost of financial 
destruction — Money invested — A black pall over the land — 
Working against time — The Boche's welcome . . .176 

CHAPTER X 

THE VIA DOLOROSA 

Anxiety in the capital — Terrified peasantry — Preparations for 
departure — German intrigues — Deletion of inefficient officers 
in the army — Daily Zeppelin visits — Isolation and great diffi- 
culties in sending help — Sweden's German Queen — Part played 
by Boy Scouts — Letter from a hospital nurse — French and 
British " birds " from Salonica to the rescue — Scarcity of 
food — Martial law — Bucharest not a fortress — Arrival of 
French military mission — Treachery from Petrograd — Pro- 
German Premier Stuermer — Austrian Red Book disclosures — 
A diabolical plot — General Iliesco's statement — The betrayal 
— Queen Marie's work — A noble example — German slanders — 
Illness of Prince Mircea — Touching scenes with the dying 
child — Constant raids over the Palace — The Queen's despair — 
Death of the Prince — Murder of the Painter Romani by 
bombs — Faith in the Allies — Roumania at bay — The arsenal 
blown up — Evacuation of the city — A terrible winter — 
Roads blocked with fugitives — The country's crucifixion . 184 

CHAPTER XI 

A QUEEN AND HER PEOPLE 
BY H.M. QUEEN MARIE 

Queen Marie's anguish over her people's sufferings — The death 
of her child — Every woman's sacrifice — The Queen's birthday 
— Visits to the hospitals — The passing of the little Prince — 
All Souls' Day — Burial of the child — The soul of suffering — 
Good-bye to Bucharest — The Queen's message to her people — 
Pictures of the past — Scenes at Cotroceni — A last visit to the 



xvi ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 



little grave — A sacrifice — Surely a return some day — The 
laden trains of soldiers — Bidding them farewell — Their 
devotion — Stoic endurance of the wounded — A dying message 
of patriotism and love — Consolation — The arrival of spring — 
Eternal hope in the trenches — Plague and suffering in the 
villages — Faith and hope prevail ..... 208 

CHAPTER XII 

TO THE FROZEN NORTH 

The retreat — J assy — Stupendous difficulties of the roads — Lack 
of everything — Plague, pestilence and famine — No supplies, 
soap or fuel — Fine work of Royal Family — Cholera — Winter 
in the Carpathians — Three hundred roubles for a bottle of 
scent — Great cold — General Averescu — Reorganization of the 
Army — General Presan — Changes in command — Colonel 
Buchan's tribute — Admiration — Battles of Targul Jui — 
Torzburg — Rothen Turm — The splendid Roumanian soldier 219 

CHAPTER XIII 

AT BAY 

The Great Adventure over — Success of the " Pincers " offensive — 
Russian help too late — Fall of Tulcea and Braila— The 
Roumanian Army's stand on the Sereth Line — Holding the 
enemy — Spirit of the troops — Reorganization of the exhausted 
Army — French and British help — General Averescu — The 
French military mission and its work — Grave risks to 
Roumania from the anarchy in Russia — Demonstration by 
Transylvanian exiles on joining up with the national colours 
— Paris and the presentation of Stephen the Great's banner — 
Brilliant summer offensive by the reorganized Roumanian 
Army — Superb fighting powers of the young officers and 
troops — Torture and tyranny in the conquered Roumanian 
territory — Bulgar Hymn of Hate — Huge enemy levies — 
Relentless savagery of the enemy . . . . .230 

CHAPTER XIV 

AND AFTER ? 

Collapse of Russia — Lenin and the negotiations — Kerensky's 
loyalty — General Tcherbatscheff and the Russian troops — 
Anarchy and chaos — Roumanian discipline and their alle- 
giance to the cause — A second betrayal — Vows of the Allies- 
Roumanians' splendid tenacity — Insolent summons from the 
Central Powers — Faced by overwhelming odds — Stranded and 
alone Roumania is forced to accept peace terms — Her inex- 
tinguishable spirit — Dauntless and trusting in her Allies to 
the end .......... 257 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



Roumania at Bay ....... Frontispiece 

Music and Rest at Sundown .... Facing page 8 

Filling the Water Jars . . . . . g 

Golden Hours Spent in Beautiful Old Convent 
Cloisters ...... 

Curious Wayside Crosses of Painted Wood . 
Very Old and Magnificent Carved Stone Cross 
The " Stina," or Shepherd Boy's Dug-out 
A Dear Old Grannie Spinning 
Peaceful Lives in Old Monasteries 
Shepherd Boy in Winter Coat 
Wild and Beautiful Scenery of the Buzeu Valley 
A Roumanian Church ..... 

A Peasant's Cottage ..... 

Shepherd Boy in Summer Pastures 
A Proud Moment ...... 

Noon : Draught Oxen in Market Place 
Peace Babies — but all Boys .... 

Infantry Marching in the Carpathians. 
The King and Queen Decorating Soldiers . 
H.M. King Ferdinand ..... 

H.M. Queen Marie in Hospital Dress . 
Soldier with Violin at Head of his Company 
Priests outside an Old Monastery 
Cross on a Lonely Wind-swept Height . 
Characteristic Roumanian Peasant Transport 
b xvii 



xviii ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 



The Rest Camp ...... Facing page 173 ■ 

Last Rites of the Church to Spies . . „ 194 
Bullock Transport of Cannon ... 195 
The Queen and Prince Mircea . . . 212 
The King Reviewing Troops . . . . 213 

The King Bestowing Decorations ... ,, 226 

In the Trenches — Winter Bound . . . ,, 227 
Funeral of an Officer in the Mountains . 242 
Digging Mountain Trenches .... 243 

The Queen in one of the Hospitals at J assy 2 58 

Blessing the Fallen . . . . . 259 



INTRODUCTION 



BY HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN OF ROUMANIA 

IN these days of adversity when my country is 
passing through the greatest crisis of its history, 
it is an immense satisfaction to me to encourage 
any effort tendered for its aid ; it is therefore a 
real pleasure to me to write a few words for Mrs. Will. 
Gordon's book. 

Distances are so great and communication so difficult, 
that very few details of our troubles and trials reach 
other countries. We are completely isolated from all our 
Allies, except Russia, and have had to stand unheard of 
hardships because relief could only be offered us from 
one side, and that side needed all its resources for itself. 

The winter that lies behind us is as one of the most 
fearful nightmares man ever dreamed. There is no 
suffering that my people have not been called upon to 
endure, no fear, no sorrow, no pain — every misery, both 
moral and physical, had to be borne at once. 

And I, their Queen, suffered with them, struggled with 
them, wept with them, shared and understood their 
every grief. 

I too had to leave a home I loved, I too had to flee 
before the invading foe, had to forsake the new-made 
grave of the little one who was torn from me whilst the 
enemy was flooding my land on every side. 

xix 



xx ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 



All have I known of mortal anguish, of days when 
hope became less and less, till the last shred had to 
be surrendered— my child and my country both at 
once. 

The remembrance I keep of those days is of a suffering 
so great that it almost blinded me ; I was as one wander- 
ing in fearful darkness wondering how much anguish one 
single heart can bear ; black waves seemed to be rushing 
in upon me threatening to drown me, yet I was quite 
calm and continued living and working as though my 
heart had not been torn from my breast. 

Strong ties of sympathy had always bound me to my 
people, but since the extraordinary misfortunes we have 
undergone together, our mutual affection has turned into 
deep and comprehensive love. 

The grief that God sent me whilst so many were 
mourning rendered me strangely dear to their hearts ; I 
had suddenly come quite close to them — they felt in me 
a comprehension of their own woes that had not been 
mine before. 

An immense tide of sympathy flowed from their souls 
to mine, giving me strength to bear bravely every sacri- 
fice, and not to give way to selfish despair. Tragedy had 
come upon us, recrimination would but weaken us, com- 
plaint lessen our courage — nothing was left to us but 
dumbly to bear our Fate. 

Winter came and with it retreat ; hunger came and 
sickness and death in every form. 

One town after another had to be surrendered, ever 
smaller became our country, a cruel exodus encumbered 
the remaining provinces ; our riches, our pride, our 
hopes had been torn from us, and like a troop of emigrants 



INTRODUCTION 



xxi 



we had to try and find place for our weary bodies and for 
our sorrowful hearts. 

Each thing we thought we could count upon crumbled 
before the inflow of an enemy ten times too strong for 
us, who knew all about war whilst we were ignorant and 
had everything to learn. Nowhere were we safe ; all the 
help that had been promised us was not forthcoming, we 
had nowhere to turn to in our agony, and the deadliest 
of winters was closing in upon us before we knew if we 
could remain there where we had pitched our tents ! 

Amidst this constant fear of further invasion we had 
to gather our courage and our wits so as to improvise 
hospitals, house refugees, feed and clothe our retreating 
troops, all this with the feeling that next day perhaps 
our efforts would be in vain, that the work so painfully 
accomplished would fall into the enemy's hand ! 

All our stores, our hoarded treasures, our food, corn 
and oil had been torn from us by the rapid advance of 
the foe ; all that remained to us of our once blooming 
country were but a few provinces, the poorest, those 
upon which in the days of abundance we had counted 
least. 

That was but the material side of our distress, and to 
that must be added every anguish, every grief of departure 
and separation, the leaving of loved homes, the haunting 
pictures of devastation, fire and ruin, of abandoned 
graves and of dying heroes who could not be saved. 

With a fresh wound in my own heart I stood amidst 
the turmoil. I myself empty-handed — I myself a refugee ! 
What had been mine lay behind the line of fire — also the 
lonely little grave lay there, belonged now to the enemy, 
and with it all the torturing remembrance of my child's 



xxii ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 



illness and death. He was my youngest, my baby, and 
just the most helpless had I to forsake ! 

But there was no time to cry over a personal grief, in 
the hour of disaster so much depends upon the leaders 
not losing their heads. 

To piece together that which is broken is no easy task ; 
if your house falls down around you, at first your only 
wish is to sit on its ruins and weep. It is then that those 
whose love and courage are greatest must come forward 
and help. Those too grievously smitten cannot immedi- 
ately lift up their heads, and very gentle must be the 
hand that endeavours to lead them back from darkness 
to light. 

For a while I thought that the effort would be beyond 
my strength, such was the hopeless discouragement that 
had taken possession of every heart. No good news 
came to gladden our spirits, only tidings of defeat, 
disaster and distress, and winter lay over everything like 
a pall of despair. 

Then little by little hands were stretched out to help. 
French and English doctors offered their assistance and 
with them many nurses and sisters whose devotion has 
no name. 

Little by little we began building up what had fallen ; 
at first only those whom adversity cannot crush showed 
the way, then others joined in — till imperceptibly a 
great new effort was born, and with that effort, new 
courage and new hope. 

It were too long to relate all the weary work of this 
past winter, a whole volume of want and suffering, of 
devotion and charity would not suffice. So many single 



INTRODUCTION 



xxiii 



incidents rise before me, so many faces, so many efforts, 
and alas ! so many death-beds that I hesitate which to 
describe. 

This is but a preface, yet there is so much to say ! It 
is a preface to a book about my country which the 
author has seen in days of prosperity, days that with 
God's help we hope to see again ; but if to-day I speak of 
tears and sufferings, it is because, alas, they are upper- 
most in our minds. 

There is too much to tell, too many pictures haunt me, 
pictures of what was, what is, and of what we hope one 
day will be. 

I look back and see visions of my country as for twenty- 
three years I have known it, peaceful, blooming, full of 
abundance, its vast plain an ocean of waving corn 
amongst which diligent peasants move to and fro gather- 
ing in the harvest, the land's dearest pride. I see its 
humble villages hidden amongst fruit trees, I see the 
autumn splendour of its forests, I see the grand solitude 
of its mountain summits, I see its noble convents, corners 
of hidden beauty, treasures of ancient art, I hear the 
sound of the shepherd's horn, the sweet complaint of his 
ditties. I see long roads with clouds of dust rising from 
them, many carts in a file, I see gaily clad peasants 
flocking to market. I see naked plains and long stretches 
of sand by the sea. 

I also see our broad proud Danube rolling its many 
waters past quaint little villages and boroughs inhabited 
by motley crowds of different nationalities, past towns 
of which the rising industries are a promise of future 
wealth. I see our port of Const anza with its bustle, 
its noise and its hopes. 



xxiv ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 



Then on the 27th August, 1916, the call to arms- 
War ! 

I see the ardent faces of my young soldiers going off 
gaily to battle — I see the trains leaving, the flowers that 
decorate the cannons, horses and men — I hear the 
tramping of passing regiments, shouts of enthusiasm, 
words of exultation. 

I see the first wounded in the hospitals of Bucharest, 
white beds, many faces all turned towards me, eager 
hands helping ; I inspect everything, go everywhere. I 
have my own hospital in our palace, I too am full of 
hope. 

For a while, a very short while, the news received 
from our armies is good, awakes wild enthusiasm, awakes 
dreams of glory in many a breast. Then the first ill 
tidings, a shadow on the expectant faces — a shadow 
over the town in spite of the blue sky above ! 

After that there are still days of hope and confidence, 
days when the first illusions seem to take form once 
more, but through it all I have the strange presentiment, 
that my country will have to drink to the dregs the 
bitterest of cups. 

Airships and Zeppelins become a haunting dread by 
night and by day ; our country being narrow, the ground 
is good for such cruel sport. Death is poured down from 
the skies into the streets, women and children are 
slaughtered without number, and as though in defiance 
of the laws of God, the days they choose for their death- 
raids are the days when heaven is bluest and the sun 
shines most brightly. 

Having been designed by the enemy as principal 
culprit, it is the house out of town where I live with my 



INTRODUCTION 



XXV 



children that they single out for special punishment, and 
on a glorious autumn morning they throw seventy-two 
bombs upon dwelling and garden where it is known that 
my little ones are usually to be found. But on that day, 
God did not wish another crime to be added to their 
lists ! 

Ever darker are the clouds gathering around our heads, 
with anxiety we look for the help that was promised us ; 
Sarrail's advance in the south ? The Russians' offensive 
in Galicia ? Russian reinforcements in the Dobrugea ? 
But we wait in vain ; no good tidings from any side, and 
the Germans have not yet straft enough ! 

Surely this proud little country who had defied her, 
must learn its lesson and be laid low in the dust. And as 
in the time of the great flood, our small struggling 
country is threatened from all sides at once. Our 
frontiers are endless, without reinforcements our own re- 
sources are too small, we begin to realize the inevitable 
results if help does not come soon enough. 

But my cup is not yet full — amidst all the turmoil and 
growing anxiety, my youngest child sickens and all our 
efforts cannot save his life. During three mortal weeks 
we struggle to keep him, but Death rules supreme over 
the world. It is not to be. On All Souls' Day, my last 
born, my little Mircea, passes away — and the voice of 
the cannon sounds closer every day. 

After that, for a while all becomes dark. I grope about 
as one who has lost her way. Only one thing remains to 
me, the intense desire to alleviate suffering around me, 
to go there where despair is greatest, to drown my own 
grief in the grief of others, to move in places where my 
own tears can be shed without shame. 



xxvi ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 



So I begin wandering about in all parts of the country 
that have remained to us. On all sides I hear the dreaded 
voice of the cannon calling out its message of death and 
destruction. 

I penetrate as far as they will allow me to go, I hunt 
up those freshly brought in from battle, as in a ghastly 
dream, I move from bed to bed. 

Every form of suffering do I see ; the last look of name- 
less dying do I carry away in my heart, and all the while 
I have the absolute certainty that my country is be- 
coming smaller and smaller — I am in a hurry, I want to 
go everywhere — everywhere before it is too late. But 
in a sort of frenzy of grief I know, that all my love, 
all my devotion cannot hold back the advancing feet of 
Fate. 

Then comes flight ! The cruel hour of parting from 
our capital, of parting from our home, our hospitals, 
from the little grave so freshly dug — flight ! 

For weeks we live in the train, not sure how far we 
must go to be safe ; but one only thought moves me ; 
put the living out of danger, then return once more, only 
once more to the grave of the dead ! 

But it is not to be — even that consolation is denied 
me — Bucharest falls, I can no more return to my 
dead. 

Dearly would I like to relate about all those who helped 
me in my arduous task, but so complex, so many-sided 
was that task, my efforts had to extend over so large a 
field, that too many faces rise before me, when I want 
gratefully to acknowledge those who have worked with 
me hand in hand. 



INTRODUCTION 



xxvii 



The English Red Cross sent me aid and material in 
every form — the wife of our English Minister displayed 
an indefatigable energy I cannot too highly praise, she is 
one of those whom adversity cannot crush. 

At first we had dreamed of running a big English 
hospital at Bucharest, founded upon the Miners' generous 
gift — the hospital was to have borne the name of the 
dearly beloved child I had just lost. All was decided, 
the house had been offered us by the officers of the 
capital — it would have been a beautiful hospital, run 
under perfect conditions — but like many others, that 
dream had to be given up. Bucharest fell, and with its 
fall and the fall of many other important towns our 
difficulties grew a thousandfold, and all the more in- 
tensely grateful am I to those who did not lose courage 
under such adverse circumstances, but endured every 
hardship, overcame every difficulty so as not to forsake 
my soldiers, who more than ever needed succour and 
aid. 

I have had heroic English doctors helping me, with 
patient brave nurses, overcoming every obstacle, en- 
during cold and hunger with those they were nursing so 
as not to forsake their post. It is a long story of devo- 
tion and abnegation, which cannot be told in a day. 

Towards the end of winter a bad epidemic of typhus 
broke out, rendering the doctors' task most dangerous. 
Many of our Roumanian doctors died, faithful to the 
end— their duties redoubled, for many flee contagion, it 
is not given to everyone to face such a crisis without 
giving way. 

I lost a great friend — a friend of recent date, but whom 
I had learnt to admire because of his wonderful work. 



xxviii ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 



He was a French doctor who from the very beginning 
had taken upon himself to run the contagious hospital 
out of town. 

I saw him work with an ardour and courage I shall 
never forget. He created that hospital under almost 
impossible conditions, everything was wanting, but 
nothing could dishearten him, no danger, no difficulty 
lessen his enthusiasm. He was a continual example to 
me ; when my own spirits were low, I would go to see 
that man work and would give him all my help, so much 
did I admire his selfless devotion; but he had to die 
before the trees were green — had to die whilst the snow 
was melting, when his efforts were beginning to bear 
fruit ! He had to die of the same illness of which he had 
cured so many — had to die in the distant land, leaving 
amongst strangers a quite young wife. 

My people know that I am absolutely unafraid of 
contagion, therefore more than ever was I claimed 
amongst them during this cruel epidemic. I penetrated 
into the most infected corners, giving everywhere, trying 
to carry a little hope and help into the most forsaken 
holes of misery. 

I think that few Queens have had the privilege to get 
so near their people. I have really gone amongst them, 
there where very few go. I have both health and good- 
will and an inexhaustible desire to console them, to 
sustain them and to awake hope in their hearts. 

Certainly there were days when everything seemed 
impossible, when the material difficulties were such that 
the most energetic spirit quailed before the morrow. At 
those hours it was to me as though I must stand awhile 
quite still, squaring my shoulders, concentrating all my 



INTRODUCTION 



xxix 



strength so as to lift a weight almost beyond what a 
single man can carry. Thus we struggled on from day 
to day, from hour to hour — " Faith removeth moun- 
tains "—I had Faith ! 

Twice my sister came from Russia. 1 We had not seen 
each other since the great war's outbreak. The help she 
brought cannot be told in words ; to have her beside me 
at those most tragic hours of my life was almost beyond 
the blessings of this earth. 

And she came with full hands, at a moment when my 
resources had quite run out. 

Ah ! Indeed it is in the time of trouble that one learns 
what is of gold ! In war it is only that which is real that 
can stand ; all that is sham, all that which pretends, 
crumbles and falls away. But nothing was spared me, 
because of the great changes in Russia, even my sister 
can come to me no more — she was my only neighbour — 
I have lost her ! And am anxious about what her future 
is to be. 

How often here in Jassy — when going from hospital 
to hospital, trying to overcome always new difficulties, 
trying to supply ever new wants, did my thoughts turn 
to my own hospital in Bucharest, in the large roomy 
halls of the palace where I had everything I could want 
— I remember the white beds, the good food, the many 
helpful hands, eager ladies, books in plenty, music, 
flowers — a lost paradise indeed ! 

Here I had no house of my own to turn into a hospital. 
It was more useful to divide my material and energies, 
sustaining those already existing. It is a harder way of 
doing good, less personal, less satisfactory, needs greater 

1 The Grand Duchess Cyril. 



xxx ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 

abnegation, brings less comfort to one's soul, but in this 
case I knew it was best. 

My ear had to be open for each cry of distress, my 
hand always ready to succour or to give, all my energies 
strained so as to encourage the efforts others were making. 
I had to go everywhere, see everything myself. 

I was almost a stranger to the town of Jassy, thus I 
gained their confidence, by the way I worked with them. 
I by degrees stole into their hearts. 

Those who have never seen them, have no notion of 
what Roumanian roads can become in winter, of how 
difficult is all circulation, how communication becomes 
an effort almost beyond human strength — and this 
winter was a winter of terrible snow and frost. 

Part of our army had to be quartered in small, miser- 
able villages, cut off from everything, buried in snow, 
transports were almost impossible, untold of hardships 
had to be borne. All my energy and goodwill could not 
take me to places where neither motor, sledge, nor 
carriage could go — I knew that there was want and sick- 
ness in those villages, but it was only towards spring- 
time that I could reach them with infinite difficulty., 
often having to quit my motor and doing the rest of the 
road on foot. 

That was the hardest work of all, that going about in 
those fever-stricken hamlets, where the patient troops 
were herded together in wretched mud-huts alongside 
of the few remaining peasants. 

Food was scarce, hardly any wood for heating, soap 
was a thing almost not to be found, linen was a luxury of 
better days — illness in every form broke out amongst the 
soldiers and many died before we could give sufficient aid ! 



INTRODUCTION 



xxxi 



Ah ! Indeed I have seen death and misery very near 
— I have moved about amongst them, have felt the 
despair of my helplessness, have tried with insufficient 
means to do wonders, but alas ! against sickness, cold 
and hunger goodwill alone did not suffice — not to be 
numbered were the graves that overfilled the cemeteries ; 
like a wood, the rough crosses grew up side by side. 

And yet how much more ghastly is the fate of those in 
the invaded part of the country, where no help can pene- 
trate. 

Here I can at least get to my people — visit them or 
send them food, aid, comforts — but there in the dear 
regions we have lost, what may their sufferings be ? 
Who succours them ? Who consoles them ? Who helps 
them to hope ? 

The enemy must have taken everything from them, 
forcing them to work against their own brothers, and 
probably he scoffs at their misery, trying to make thern 
doubt the love of those who had to leave them to so cruel 
a fate ! 

That thought is the hardest of all ! And to be so 
helpless — to have no news, no details, to be entirely cut 
off! 

I feel it is a rambling tale, the tale I have told — it is 
as though I had written in a trance — maybe I have often 
repeated myself, yet I have only said half of what I had 
to say. One day perhaps when this period of suffering 
will be a little more distant I will more clearly be able to 
write the history of these days of distress. 

What can I still add ? Only this : I thank all those 
who have helped me and all those who are still ready to 
help, and I want to declare that in spite of the calamity 



xxxii ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 



that has come over her, Roumania does not regret having 
thrown in her lot with those righting for a holy cause ! 
Does it not also mean for her the liberation of her brothers 
in Transylvania, suffering under foreign sway ? 

Roumania is proud of her Allies, confident in their 
noble sense of justice ; she knows that she will not be 
forsaken and that when the great hour of Victory strikes, 
those for whom she bled so sorely will not forget that she 
also has won her right to live ! 

The blessed day of return to our homes, of reunion 
with those groaning 'neath the enemy's sway may yet be 
distant ; I know not how much blood, how many tears 
are still to be shed, but this I know : On that day of 
thanksgiving, on that great day of joy when my people 
will be singing songs of praise because they are free once 
more — on that day I, their Queen, will gratefully re- 
member all those who did not forsake me and my 
country, in my hour of sorrow and distress ! 

MARIE 

1917 



PART I 
YESTERDAY 



B 



ROUMANIA 

YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 



CHAPTER I 

A LAND OF BEAUTY 

The region, nor bright nor sombre wholly, 
But mingled up ; a gleaming melancholy. 
A dusky empire and its diadems ; 
One faint eternal eventide of gems. 

Keats. 

ROUMANIA ! what scenes of beauty the soft 
Latin name conveys ! 
A land of vast horizons, winding rivers, 
mountains, and valleys rich in the luxuriant 
verdure of oak, beech and fir ; plains carrying on their 
broad bosom grain in overflowing measure — nature's 
priceless gift to man. 

Under the splendour of an Eastern sun, such as we in 
the little grey Isle of the West but rarely see, broods a 
calm, a tranquillity that lies like a caress on a land, fair 
and prosperous now, but drenched through centuries in 
blood and tears. 

Was it but yesterday that Roumania was at peace ? 
Yesteryear the great peaks of the Carpathians front- 
ing the realms of their implacable and savage neighbour 
Hungary, were silhouetted against an azure sky ; the 



4 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 

stillness of the mountains held no menace, no warning 
of the bloody massacre and devastation to come. 

High in the blue dome overhead the eagles wheel and 
circle. With regal strokes they swoop " on pinions 
strong," then swiftly rising, disappear into the dazzling 
radiance of the sun. Above us, among these rocky spurs 
which rise so sheerly from the green mantle of pine and 
beech woods that clothe their feet, are the thrones where 
the king of birds shares his solitude with the wolf, the 
bear and the chamois. 

Tiny shepherds' huts — little dug-outs made of earth 
with roofs of turf — cling to the lesser heights, and big 
fierce dogs rush out and bay fiercely as we pass. All 
over the slopes, the black, brown and white sheep are 
lazily browsing in the warm golden light. The bees are 
droning drowsily as they gather their harvest of honey, 
so plentiful in this land of flowers, of " wandering voices 
in the air and murmurs in the wold." 

Listen a moment ! 

Through the clear, still air the wind is whispering. 
Softly it brings the faint notes of a plaintive melody ; 
an old Roumanian love song perhaps — or is it a dirge ? 
The music of Roumania, even the gayest, is threaded 
with melancholy, full of the sadness of a tortured past, 
the passion and tears of the bitter ages, when even the 
rapture of youth and love could not conceal a measure 
of foreboding. 

The tender melody with its sweet pleading, the longing 
of the man for the maid, is surely changing. The thin, 
clear notes are falling into a minor key. What is it that 
comes across the warm sun-scented spaces ? 

The tragic chords — a lament, the doina, so full of 



A LAND OF BEAUTY 



5 



restless sombre sorrow — flute strangely through the 
brilliant sunshine. 

O Land of Beauty ! under the gay sparkle and laughter 
of your children, the slow tears lie very close. Within 
the indomitable heart of the race that has struggled 
through the centuries, deep thoughts are stirring ! 

The notes come clearer : the shepherd boy, the lonely 
pastor of the tranquil hills, comes into sight, a solitary 
figure amongst those quiet uplands. 

What is the dark shadow behind him, following so 
close ? 

What are those whispers borne on the breeze ? 
The spirits of the past are surely astir, the sun is sink- 
ing — the air is chill. 

Play up, little pastor ! something merry, something 

gay. 

Only sixteen ? — why, what a child ! 

Where will he be in two years' time ? Will the slender 
fingers playing so deftly on the pipes of Pan among the 
peaceful hills be playing a fiercer, sterner game ? 

But to-morrow broods eternally in to-day and only 
God and the silent stars know what the future holds. 
* # * ■* 

Leaving the wild beauty and loneliness of the Car- 
pathian ranges, we descend into the lush valleys and 
plains of Roumania's richest province, Wallachia — the 
wide granary and great oil fields which have brought her 
prosperity, and earned for her the title of " the Belgium 
of the East." 

It is a country of vivid contrasts and endless interest, 
and Nature has used the colours on her palette with 
lavish hand. Spring, so rich in promise, so riotous in a 



6 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 



foam, a frenzy of blossom, has passed already on the 
upper hills, and Nature, that great artist, her brush full 
of the reds, yellows and purples of early autumn, is 
touching the woods and bracken. But summer, like a 
contented guest with his hopes fulfilled, still lingers in 
the valleys, plains and near the streams, whose banks 
are yet ablaze with wild flowers and waving grasses. 

On the outskirts of a little village some gipsies have 
pitched their camp. Dirty, ragged, unkempt, living like 
animals, these nomads are still inconceivably picturesque. 
The naked elf -like children, screeching and clamouring 
for alms, the wrinkled old crones, the Mira or Sooth- 
sayer, pipe in mouth, and wearing as a girdle the cord 
and shell, symbol of necromancy and fortune-telling, 
crouch over the fire, snoozing, or stirring mysterious 
messes in steaming pots. The wild upright grace of the 
young girls, beautiful creatures, scantily clad in gaudy 
rags, is striking ; with flashing eyes, teeth of pearl and 
figures as lissome as young palm trees, they sway as they 
dance, heads thrown back, necks bared and arms akimbo. 
Long braids of blue-black hair glittering with a magpie 
collection of old coins, glass and tinsel, stream out behind 
them in the sultry air. 

Squatting on the grass are the youths and men, bare- 
footed, slender, uncannily handsome with twisted curls 
hanging round their sun-browned sombre faces. Some 
are thrumming out a lively tune for the girls to dance. 
The violin, the cobza — a strange-shaped lute — and the 
classical flute of ancient days being the inseparable com- 
panion of these ragged Lauteri, the wandering gipsy 
troubadours of Roumania. 

A despised and outcast race ! Yet their life is indis- 



A LAND OF BEAUTY 



7 



solubly linked with the superstitious peasantry of these 
Eastern lands, who call them in on all occasions. Charms 
for an ailing child, for their cattle, for a good harvest, for 
rain ; spells to ward off the evil spirits — so profoundly 
believed in — and philtres for the sick or love-stricken are 
eagerly sought from these wild children of nature, so 
skilled in her secret lore. They are bidden to their feasts, 
to provide the wild, sweet music for the hora, their 
national dance ; to the births, weddings and deaths, 
when, playing their tragic soul-stirring dirges, they head 
the procession of wailing women to the graveside. The 
unmeasured yearning and sadness of their music — the 
nostalgia of far-off lands — thrills out like an envoi to the 
soul setting out on its mysterious journey. 

* * * * 

Harvest is in progress, and the burnished plains of 
ripened corn stretch to the far horizon in a misty golden 
glow, such as one sees on distant Canadian prairies — 
none but the very, very old and sick are left in the 
picturesque little houses ; all are at work in the fields, 
from the tiny tot of three or four to the grand-peres and 
grand' meres of nearly seventy ; youth and age alike are 
gathering in the precious grain. 

Near the roadside, lie the great grey or dun-coloured 
oxen, beautiful, patient, strong, with their branching 
horns and soft human eyes. Beneath the shade of the 
carts — scarcely different from those of early Roman 
days — lie the babies, cradled on an old sack or skirt, 
with only the dogs — so fierce to strangers, so gentle to 
their masters — to safeguard them. When the little 
mites grow fractious and use their lusty lungs or beat 
the air frantically with dimpled fists, the " friend of 



8 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 



man " will creep up and gently nose the disgusted and 
indignant youngster, as if to reassure him. 

Each nation looks upon the dog in a different way, but 
the dogs of war and the dogs of peace (of a pastoral and 
agricultural people like the Roumanians) are beyond 
doubt the intelligentzia of their kind. A little further 
East he was sometimes held in fear, and an old Baby- 
lonian prayer runs thus : " From the dog, the snake, 
the scorpion, and whatever is baleful, may Merodach 
preserve us." Perhaps the dogs who inspired this fear 
in this ancient maker of prayers, had shown an unwise 
over-hasty zest, and predilection for the flavour of the 
ankles of his reverence ! 

On the other hand, on some of the wonderful bas- 
reliefs of that period, our four-footed friends have been 
gratefully immortalized, and their names remain written 
thereon to this day — " He who ran and barked." " The 
biter of his foes." " The seizer of his enemies." But 
here in Roumania " slayer of the wolf," " the friend 
of sheep," betoken a less disinterested path in life, and a 
strict attention to his daily duty, rather than to the 
pleasurable excitements of a doggy existence. One 
might perhaps add " guardian of the babes " without his 
losing in canine prestige. 

* * * * 

The close of the long day comes ; the hard task 
is finished ; the carts creak slowly homewards. A 
popa, or priest in black garments, with straggling 
beard that scissors have never been allowed to touch, 
and long hair tucked under a high black hat, blesses 
the women and children as they kiss his hand in 
passing. 



A LAND OF BEAUTY 



9 



These pop as or secular priests are of simple origin and 
live, homely lives among the people they teach. They 
draw but a small stipend and are bound to marry before 
taking Holy Orders. The faith of the country is that of 
the Greek Orthodox, which differs in the following 
essential points from the Roman Catholic Church : 

(1) the Holy Ghost proceeding from the Father only ; 

(2) the administration of the Eucharist in both kinds to 
the laity ; and (3) the substitution of icons and pictures 

\ for the images of the Holy Virgin and Saints. The higher 
clergy are generally drawn from the upper classes, and 
celibacy is required of them. If a popa rises to be a 
Bishop he must divorce his wife before assuming office, 
and she generally retires into a convent ; while the 
Bishop goes into a monastery for a few months' retreat 
before his consecration. 

The sinking sun is sending long slanting shafts of 
golden light over the plain, as one after another the 
carts wind along the dusty road to the village with its 
tiny dwellings, so small one wonders how they can house 
so prolific a brood as the good wife mothers in the two 
rooms in which the chickens and dogs are also welcomed. 
The houses are like the drawings of our childhood — a 
little square whitewashed box with rough designs in 
colour painted on the walls, a door like a mouth, and a 
window like a stolid unwinking eye on either side. The 
heavy thatch, like the forelock of a shaggy Skye terrier, 
branches well over the face of the little abode. They 
stand in gardens gay with flowers and many fruit trees ; 
and contrast favourably with those of the Bulgarian, 
who cares for nothing but the purely utilitarian side of 
life, and whose homestead is bare and unadorned. There 



io ROUMANXA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 



are two types of dwellings in the rural districts, the 
house built of wood in the mountain and hill districts 
where the thatch is replaced by tiled roofs that shine 
brightly in the sun, a more comfortable and substantial 
structure than those of beaten earth which are the home- 
steads of the poorer peasantry on the Danubian plains. 
There are also the squat semi-underground mud hovels 
of the gipsies and fishermen with roofs of wattle or reeds, 
infinitely picturesque in appearance but often breeding 
places of disease and vermin. 

The houses of the wealthier peasants and those of the 
nobles are curious and very picturesquely built. Some 
of the old ones are like primitive strongholds, half castle, 
half house, called koula. They are built in a square 
form with blind walls immensely thick, that show nothing 
but a massive door, and narrow barred peep-holes. 
Inside, a stairway leads to the top, where close to the 
roof which overhangs, runs a wide gallery or loggia, 
supported by pillars where the family live in the torrid 
days of summer. Some of the old houses have bells in 
the turret that tinkle when the wind blows boisterously, 
and which are rung with great vigour on joyful occa- 
sions. 

Within the Roumanian home, though poor and often 
bare, will be found a bright rug or two, woven on the 
simple loom called Resboin by these industrious and 
wonderful peasant mothers of Roumania. Working 
from morning till night, in the fields, tending the animals, 
cooking, spinning, weaving, rearing her numerous pro- 
geny, her life is one long round of toil, patiently and 
cheerfully borne. Wedded very young, often at fifteen 
or sixteen, and frequently abducted by the man she 



A LAND OF BEAUTY 



ii 



marries, her beauty soon fades, but the dignity, the 
tenderness and gentle humour are enduring. 

In the big painted chest she brings to her new home 
lies her outfit, the bright rugs and her slender dowry ; 
her bridal gown, the dress of her wifehood and the last 
dress of all — in which she lies in the red-lined coffin, the 
busy hands folded quietly, and ready for the long 
journey. All are woven and embroidered by her deft 
fingers and dainty fancy ; the fine stitchery, delicate 
design and sparkling beauty of tiny glittering sequins, 
the clear, silver transparency of the veil — such as the 
ancient Roman matrons wore — and the fata or petti- 
coat, richly embroidered in gold, silver and many 
colours. 

Outside, the night has fallen. In the courtyard, the 
lively, squealing pigs, the greedy hens forever hunting 
the wily grub and crumb, the oxen, ponies and the geese, 
are slowly going to rest. The romping children — the 
puicu (little ones) — have been drawn within, the hungry 
mouths are filled, the little voices murmur the evening 
prayer. Tenderly the mother kisses each curly head, 
murmuring a blessing as she lays them side by side on 
the long, low, shelf-like bed. The last little one lying 
close to her warm breast is soothed to slumber. 

The room is quiet — her man asleep. Her thoughts fly 
forth to the twin sons of her heart, the firstborn, Vasile 
and Mihail, doing their military service in the army far 
away. Crossing herself she kneels before the icon, the 
Panaghia, the " All Holy Virgin Mother," illuminated 
by the tiny lamp that is never extinguished. " Shield 
them from temptation, Holy Mother of God, keep them 
fit and noble sons of Roumania. Guard them from evil 



12 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 



spirits, and send them in Thy good time a wife, a little 
land and children." 

The never idle hands take up the distaff — eight little 
bodies have to be clothed, fed, cherished. Life is a 
weary round, but the mother's heart is content. Her 
man, her sturdy children, the little bit of land. God's 
good sun and the simple daily round. Home and 
peace ! 

Outside, the eyes of the little house are twinkling 
brightly now. Lit by the lamp, they gleam athwart the 
darkening path, seeming to say, " We house and shelter 
souls of men and angels who keep guard within, with- 
out." 

In the west the sun, like a gorgeous orange moth, has 
royally sunk to rest. Only a dying flicker trembles 
across the gathering clouds of night. Across the vivid 
shaft of light, cuts the dark line of the Carpathians — like 
brooding sentinels they stand — guarding a nation — at 
peace. 

* * * * 

The change in type the moment one crosses the frontier 
is striking and very interesting. The crafty impetuous 
Hungarian, the imperturbable slow-moving Serb, the 
stolid Bulgar, might be perhaps mistaken for brothers if 
dressed alike, for in physique and some facial traits they 
resemble one another, but never could one mistake the 
Latin origin of the Roumanian. Slender, with dark eyes 
in which a sombre fire mingles with much latent fun and 
good humour, graceful figures and courteous ways, they 
are Latin through and through — a Western power in an 
Eastern setting. Isolated between the Slav and Turkish 



A LAND OF BEAUTY 



13 



races the original strain has persistently remained 
through the centuries, and any influence imported by 
their Turkish or other rulers has been only minor in 
degree and ephemeral. 

Eighty per cent of the population is agricultural, and 
the peasants love the land with a devotion born of the 
many generations who under the ban of oppression have 
watered it with their blood and tears. Hard-working 
and frugal, whether they are the kilted highlander of the 
Carpathians, the lone shepherd of the hills or the agri- 
culturist on the great plains, they are one and all imbued 
with the traditions of the past, and the valorous deeds 
of their forefathers, immortalized in ballad and folk-lore, 
are as real to them as the religion which influences them 
so powerfully. 

Deep in his patient heart lies the age-old craving for 
the little piece of land — the bit of Mother Earth that he 
may call his own — the tiny pasture, the brown soil 
that yields the grain his toil-worn hands have sown and 
reaped so industriously, and on which his tiny homestead 
stands. This is indeed his heart's desire, his beacon and 
his hope. 

For the present agrarian system, though much im- 
proved in the last few years, is still largely a legacy from 
mediaeval days, the land having hardly yet recovered 
from the leprosy of the Turkish rule. The great domains 
belonging to the absentee aristocracy were let out to 
middlemen, who were peculiarly oppressive and kept a 
large proportion of the peasantry — the bone and sinew of 
the nation — in a condition of dependence, on a starva- 
tion wage and in such continual toil for their masters 
that they had hardly time to cultivate their own small 



i 4 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 



holding, which frequently fell into the hands of un- 
scrupulous Jews. 

Unlike the upper classes the peasantry are religious. 
Their church — the Greek Orthodox — and its observances 
are strictly adhered to, the law of the Church and the 
law of the land having equal weight with the rural 
population. Fasting especially has a strong hold upon 
the people. Their food at all times is simple and sparing. 
Consisting principally of the mamaliga or maize porridge, 
which the lusty little brood of children share with their 
elders, it is the more astonishing to see the great number 
of fast days imposed on them by the order of the Church, 
amounting to at least two hundred days in the year, and 
this obligation they follow most submissively. 

The women and girls especially keep their fasts most 
rigorously and it seems almost to be accounted a greater 
sin to break the fast than to break the Ten Command- 
ments. During Lent, onions, bread, and thin vegetable 
soup and the mamaliga are all they will take. Even when 
very ill it seems the patient would rather " fast and die 
than eat and sin." 

Their costume is thoroughly characteristic of this 
beauty-loving race and is worn with an inherent grace. 
In many respects it closely resembles the dress of the 
Dacian period, indeed the opinca or sandals worn by the 
men are exactly like those worn by the Dacian captives on 
Trajan's column at Rome. The people are a handsome 
race and look extraordinarily well in their national dress. 
The men, broad-shouldered, deep-chested, slender and 
well-proportioned, wear a loose white shirt over tight - 
fitting trousers of white cotton tucked into handsome 
stockings embroidered in black and white. Round his 



A LAND OF BEAUTY 



15 



waist — for he only possesses one, the women have dis- 
carded theirs — he wears some splendidly coloured scarf 
swathed round and round him very tightly, accentuating 
his slender build. The women wear loose white blouses 
open at the throat, of cotton or soft butter muslin, 
beautifully embroidered and a glitter with tiny sequins 
and gold thread. The fota or apron has panels back and 
front of rich dark colours or is made of wonderful gold 
tissue shot with gold. Their embroidery and colour 
scheme though Slavonic is far finer, more delicate and 
sumptuous than the Bulgarian or Serbian, and shows 
very distinctly the Byzantine influence, and in the trans- 
parent beauty of the long veils, the headkerchiefs, and 
conca or lovely glittering tiara, all express the artistic 
personality of the people. 

Notwithstanding Roumanians close proximity to the 
Orient and the long Turkish domination she had to 
endure the position of the women here is an extra- 
ordinarily free and independent one, and their influence 
in the family and social life is very marked. As an 
instance, it is related that in ancient times a Prince of 
Moldavia, being beaten by the enemy, retired to his 
fortress. Arriving there he was met by his mother who 
adjured him to return and continue the fight, and finally 
told him she would never allow him to enter the citadel 
except as a victor. So inspired was he by her martial 
courage and advice that he gathered together his scat- 
tered forces, gave battle and won a great victory. 

The Roumanians, like the Serbs, are a poetic people 
with many ideals, and among them the respect and kind- 
ness they show to their women is a charming and very 
attractive trait. It is a contrast to Hungary, where a 



16 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 



woman thinks she has lost the love of her husband unless 
she is beaten regularly — a proof of matrimonial affection 
the Roumanian woman would not stand ! Or in Bulgaria, 
where she is the servant of her man, and the honeymoon 
over, her freshness gone, life becomes hard and ugly in 
its purely material aims. 

The proverb : " Blessed are the hands that knead the 
bread," show very truly the position and affection she is 
held in. The relation between her and her husband is 
based on mutual respect and kindness, she is the keeper 
of the purse, her advice is always sought and her position 
and influence in the family is one of trust and love. The 
peasants are of a proud and independent nature and all 
prefer to till the soil to being servants in the town. 

They are an extraordinarily dignified race of la beaute 
calme that travellers and French writers have noticed so 
much, and when they advance in years the men especially 
look exceedingly patriarchal. A wide gulf divides their 
mentality from those of the town dwellers, and they have 
a reserve, though a kindly gracious one, a certain un- 
approachability, a fear that you may want to exploit 
them, a distrust as to any action being a disinterested 
one, that is born perhaps of long years of oppression. If 
you talk to them and assert some fact, or ask their opinion, 
they will make a deprecating movement with their hands 
saying, " O fi boerule ! — perhaps, it might be so, sir ! " 
* * * * 

Their lives are spent in an unremitting round of toil ; 
simple, hardy and abstemious, they cling to traditional 
customs and dress. Their pleasures are few and simple. 
The winter evenings round a big fire the women and girls 
assemble spinning, and the old legends and stories 



A LAND OF BEAUTY 



17 



povesta are recited, and the popular ballads doine are 
sung in turn. The feasts of the Church, weddings, funerals, 
baptisms, elections, or the visit of a ftrefet, are among 
their simple pleasures. On Sundays and feast-days in 
the summer, their workaday clothes will be discarded 
and their picturesque festal attire donned. Round the 
village green they gather, and, joining hands in an enor- 
mous circle, will dance the graceful hora to the strains of 
the gipsy musicians. Though gay they are never rowdy, 
and threaded through the natural vivacity of their virile 
temperament runs a strain of melancholy, bred from the 
long years of oppression, and the stoic acceptance of a 
destiny that the Turk forced them to accept for so long. 

At Easter or St. George's Day, which is celebrated as 
the arrival of spring, branches of greenery are hung over 
their doorways in welcome. This is also the day when 
the young men choose their brides. The girls dressed in 
their best sit around the village green. The young men 
saunter round in groups, laughing and joking with the 
blushing girls. When they have decided on the one they 
like, she is taken by the hand and asked to dance. This 
is tantamount to a declaration : if she dances twice with 
him it signifies her consent. Sometimes the parents 
object and forbid the marriage, and then, as the peasants 
say, " the lover just goes and steals her ! " 

Weddings, like the funerals, are equally influenced by 
many of the classical observances of the ancient Roman 
, as well as the Greek pagan rites. The bread broken over 
I the bride's head, the anointing of the threshold with 
I butter or honey, the brad or branch of the fir tree that 
tthe best man holds over her, symbolical of vigour, fecun- 
dity and health, are only a few of the interesting customs 



18 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 



followed on these occasions, which date from ancient 
times. 

One of the first things a newly wed wife will do is to go 
to the well and throw in a coin to propitiate the genii 
loci dwelling there, and always a few drops from the 
pitcher when rilled will be sprinkled on the ground as an 
offering to the Wodna Zena or water spirit. To arrive in 
rain is lucky, and when the villagers want to honour 
someone greatly, water is sprinkled before their feet ; a 
wooden pail also filled with water is put outside the door 
on festive occasions. Roumania being a dry country, 
and an agricultural one, with a terribly hot summer, rain 
means everything to these people, who regard it as the 
symbol of life, bringing them fertility, abundance, and a 
good harvest. The line from the Koran, " By water 
everything lives," bequeathed to them from the Turkish 
occupation, has a very real meaning for them. 

The heart of the nation — its peasantry — differs but 
little to-day from what it was in the time of its Roman 
ancestors. The legends, customs, habits, dress of olden 
time have been preserved here as in no other Latin 
country. Terpsichore brought them their Calusare, a 
national dance, undoubtedly a reproduction of the Rape 
of the Sabines, while the festivals for invoking rain are 
identical with those held for that purpose in ancient 
Rome. 

Another ancient custom from Greek and Roman times 
is the employment of professional women mourners, the 
Bocitoare, who wail over the departed as in days long 
gone. The tile on which the priest will draw the mystic 
sign of the pentacle or the words " Christ has conquered ' 
is placed over the heart to prevent their return to earth 



A LAND OF BEAUTY 



19 



as a vampire. The stick that is laid in the wrinkled 
hands of their dead ; the little silver coin — the navlon 
or charm — placed on their brow, is the continuation of 
the ancient classical custom that was meant to help the 
pilgrim across the dark, unfathomable waters : 

" Beyond the shores of Styx and Acheron, 
In unexplored realms of night to hide." 

In some parts of the country when a death occurs all 
the pots and pans are turned upside down to prevent the 
escaping soul seeking refuge there and haunting the 
family. 1 Dressed in its best the body lies, its head rest- 
ing on a pillow filled with earth by the relatives, who 
each put in a handful, murmuring, " God rest his soul." 
Plates containing cakes and flowers are placed beside the 
body by friends, who think they are able by this means 
to send messages to those long dead. The house is not 
swept for two days after a death, and when it is the 
broom is burnt. The widow eats no meat and must visit 
the grave daily for forty days, leaving water by the 
graveside in case the departed should be suffering 
from thirst. Another pagan custom called Rusalu, the 
festival of the dead, is held in summer, when tributes and 
flowers are laid on the graves of the departed. The 
people are extremely superstitious and many oblations 
are offered to the elemental deities. At birth, if the baby 
is a son, the " Dealer of destinies " has to be placated by 
coins, to ensure the little one being endowed with courage 
and good fortune ; while if it is a girl, fecundity and 
good health are prayed for. The first-born son in every 
family has an earring put in his right ear to keep away 

1 This custom is also followed in far distant Korea. 



20 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 



the evil eye. Red wool or ribbon in the girls' hair is also 
a charm for this. 

Those men who cannot grow moustaches are also con- 
sidered to possess this evil influence ; blue or grey eyes 
and red hair are also shunned for this reason. To meet a 
priest on great occasions is bad luck. The women and 
children will kiss his hand in passing, but the men, if 
they can do it without offence, will turn their backs and 
walk away ; if they can't, they will make a little cross of 
two small twigs or bits of straw and lay it on the road. 
* * * * 

Roumanian folk-lore is incontestably one of the richest 
in the world and is full of a poetic grace, a deep undying 
love for the nature mother which is a striking character- 
istic of this people. It shows itself very markedly in the 
rich and very beautiful collection of popular ballads, 
fairy tales, legends, proverbs, magic formulas and 
charms ; songs, games, dances, mystery, morality and 
folly plays, which embody in verse and prose the 
romantic and mystical characteristics of the race and which 
have been handed down to them through the centuries. 
The doinas, ballads sung all over the land, are as real 
an expression of the heart and soul of this people to-day 
as in the past, when they were wrung from natures sur- 
charged with deep emotion and devotion to their violated 
soil. They came to birth under storm and stress, and no 
one knows who voiced these words of tragedy, passion or 
of happiness, who write the haunting melodies so ex- 
pressive of the love, joy or grief of this people. 

Many of their ballads are of pagan mythological origin, 
such as that of the Sun and Moon. The Sun fell in love 
with his sister and wished to take her to wife, but Jove 



A LAND OF BEAUTY 



21 



interposing at the altar against the sacrilege lifted her 
up and cast her into the sea, where she changed into an 
eel. The Sun following her sunk into the sea in the West, 
but Jove caught the eel from among the waves and flung 
her into the clouds, where she changed into the Moon — 
and the Sun still chases her, exhausting his horses in his 
fruitless attempt to catch his beloved. 

The little verses, the Collindes (Kalendae), that the 
children sing from house to house at Christmas and the 
New Year carrying an icon surrounded by flowers : 

" A long time ago 
Brother Trajan arose," 

have a distinct Roman influence, while the pipes of Pan 
which are frequently seen on the Gallo-Roman or Roman 
sculptures are the same as those on which the shepherd, 
the pastor, flutes his plaintive melody as he passes 
endless, lonely vigils with his dogs and sheep among the 
voiceless slopes of the uplands, or whose music filters 
thinly through the golden haze of summer, the misty 
veil of autumn. 

The shepherd's life is a simple and solitary one. Rising 
before the dawn from his bed of bracken in the primitive 
little hut or stina on the mountain-side, he will eat an 
onion, a little cold mamaliga or maize porridge ; throwing 
his great rough sheepskin over his shoulders, which leaves 
little to show above but the bright black eyes and a 
conical cap of fur — he will call his dogs and lead his sheep 
from the dew-drenched slopes to the higher pasture — for 
a long and lonely day. The autumn sees them descend- 
ing with their flocks into the valleys for the winter. This 
is the loveliest season of all the year in Roumania, with 
its gorgeous sunsets, the brilliant colours of the changing 



22 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 



woods, and the cool breeze following on the parched heat 
of summer. I think the Roumanian peasant would 
endorse old William Warlock's dictum of that season did 
he know it ! 

" I do love October," said William Warlock. " Don't 'ee 
love no other month, Mr. Warlock ? " said Mrs. Mutton. 
" Iss, I do love all the months, but when I zed I did love 
October I did mean it did zeem to I zo zweet and beautiful. 
It do zeem the picture of the year. We do goo vrom 
month to month, auver and auver, with zomething good 
in each ; but when October do come in, so be it be a 
good October, then the picture avore un of every colour, 
gold and red and green and lovely brown with the apple 
skies, I do zay, zo many, many times to I, 'I do love 
October.' " 

The life and customs of the Roumanian people date 
back to immemorial times, and in all these Eastern lands 
of Europe Roumania seems to stand out pre-eminently as 
the descendant and guardian of the ancient pastoral 
dwellers of the Carpathian lands. 

The departure of the shepherds in the spring for the 
mountains, their return before the winter, follows a date 
that has been adhered to through the centuries. In- 
accessible to alien influence in their mountains and 
valleys they have been the steadfast preservers of the 
ancient Daco-Roman traditions and blood of the original 
pastoral ancestors of the Roumanian people. 



CHAPTER II 

A LATIN OASIS 

NE emerges rather abruptly and suddenly from 
m ■ the wide tranquillity of the country into the 
JF noisy gaiety of the capital Bucharest. The 
streets, crowded in the bright sunshine and 
dancing with colour, seemed to be the rendezvous for 
multitudinous trysts . All the young men sauntering 
along looked as if they were waiting for some one, and 
eyed eagerly every girl that passed ! Midinettes, with 
slim ankles, well-dressed hair, and the sure Latin instinct 
for coquetry and flirtation, vied with the comely peasant 
girls in the gaiety of the moment, and jest and laughter 
was bandied about with typical Southern vivacity and 
verve. 

All over the world one will find proud citizens claiming 
for their town the ambitious title of a " Paris," but their 
illusion is generally destroyed when travel makes them 
acquainted with the illustrious reality. With regard to 
Bucharest, however, the claim is no unworthy one, and 
this little capital lying on the very fringe of the Orient, 
surrounded by the slow melancholy of the Slav nations, 
is the gayest, brightest, lightest-hearted little sister to 
the elder Paris it is possible to imagine, and, as 
Bucuresci — meaning " city of pleasure " — amply lives up 
to its title. 

An old legend relates that the city was founded by a 

23 



24 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 

shepherd called Bucur who built a little church on the 
right bank of the river Dimbovitza, which still exists 
and is venerated as the shrine of the patron saint. 
Formerly a very primitively built town of ancient boyar 
dwellings, and the huts of the shepherds and poor, it was 
completely rebuilt after the great fire in 1847, an d * s now 
a handsome spacious city. Its geographical position on 
the great high road since the fourteenth century of the 
traffic between the East and West was also exceptionally 
favourable to its development. Its formation, which is 
far more extended in proportion to its inhabitants than 
most other towns, is very pleasing, and the many wide 
avenues of trees, fine gardens surrounding the beautiful 
houses, and wide open spaces planted with shrubs make 
it a veritable garden city. 

Fine boulevards — the Calea Victoria Caroli, Calea 
Elizabeth, Strada Lipsicani— laid out in French style, 
broad and well paved, run the whole length of the town 
to the Chaussee Kissilef, a big open space bordered with 
woods which leads out of the city. Magnificent villas or 
palaces, the abode of the wealthy princes and merchants, 
stand in gardens of bright green shrubbery. 

Enormous sums of money have been spent in building 
and beautifying these abodes, which are furnished with 
every luxury. The richer owners favour the English 
style for the furnishing of the big square hall, dining- 
room and library, the Jacobean and William and Mary 
period being le dernier cri. The salon is nearly always 
French, Louis- Quinze, in style. These mansions are 
separated from the road by magnificent black iron rail- 
ings and imposing gates lavishly decorated with gold, 
giving a very decorative note to the town. 



A LATIN OASIS 



25 



The public buildings are equally imposing, indeed the 
post office with its stately entrance and wide echoing 
marble halls is Olympian in its grandeur. One can 
hardly imagine the humble washing or grocery bill pass- 
ing through these stately portals ! Only the missives of 
the gods or emperors, and postcards — those brilliant 
winged messages from Cupid, Mars, and Venus — seem 
worthy of a passage here ! 

The Royal Palace, on the other hand, is most modest. 
Composed of three wings, the one to the left is the oldest 
part, being the ancient town abode of Prince Ghika 
and later Prince Couza. It is a comfortable, long, low 
building. A narrow courtyard, less than a quarter the 
width of that in front of Buckingham Palace, separates it 
from the road, and one can almost see into the Royal 
apartments. In the interior, a superb marble staircase 
leads to the throne-room, and the state apartments as 
well as the private apartments are furnished with great 
taste, containing many objets d'art, while some of the 
rooms are embellished with beautiful carving, 

Here, as well as at the Palace of Cotroceni and the 
beautiful castle at Sinaia in the Carpathians, there are 
many treasures of pictorial and decorative art and a 
very considerable and interesting library. Here, also, 
the student of the Spanish school of painting will find an 
interesting collection : nine of the canvases of that re- 
markable artist El Greco, including the splendid portrait 
of Don Diego Covarubias ; three of Velazquez, one a 
striking portrait of Cardinal Galli, and some of Zur- 
barran ; a flagellation of Alonzo Cano and some examples 
of Murillo, Ribeiro, Tristan, Alonzo Coello, Antonio del 
Rincon and others, 



26 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 



Some examples of the Italian school also adorn the 
walls : Tiepolo, Correggio, Tintoretto, Paulo Veronese, 
and Palma Vecchio. A very rare canvas of Squarcione, 
head of the earlier Paduan school, a Botticelli, a Mantegna, 
a fine Rembrandt which appeared at the great Rembrandt 
exhibition at Amsterdam, and a Rubens, are only some 
of the great masters which this collection of interest and 
importance comprises. The nation is also rich in some 
private collections, rarely found in these Eastern coun- 
tries. 

The Palace of Cotroceni, situated to the west of 
Bucharest, was originally an old monastery, and is the 
favourite town residence of the King and Queen. Here 
were spent the early years of their married life, here the 
beautiful Royal children were born, and grew up, lovely 
and happy, romping among the woods and gardens, the 
big corridors and the more extensive rooms that the 
older palace in town did not possess. 

Entirely rebuilt some years ago, it stands in beautiful 
wooded grounds. In the park is found the mausoleum 
of the little Princess Marie, the only child of King Carol 
and Queen Elizabeth, and among the woods and gardens, 
ending their days in quiet sylvan retreat, stand the 
curious old stone crosses which Queen Marie has col- 
lected. Many of them are carved and of the Byzantine 
period and are most ancient and interesting. 

These extraordinary old crosses possess a great interest 
for the Queen, and she has created out of her original and 
inventive mind a very interesting one. It seems to be of 
purely Aryan origin, appearing for the first time in 
Vedic form as two bars crossed by their centre, the points 
turning sharply backwards to represent the solar rays, 



A LATIN OASIS 



27 



According to M. Burnouff it is the Swastika or primitive 
cross of the Zoroastrians, or worshippers of fire. This is 
sometimes found in Scandinavian countries under the 
name of filot. 

The interior of the palace is distinguished by the 
artistic arrangement of the apartments, and above all by 
the great taste and wonderful decorative talents of 
Queen Marie. Here in these beautiful rooms her inspira- 
tion and ability have produced a charming and most 
original effect, the predominant motif being the mys- 
terious intermingling of the rich colouring and design of 
the wonderful Byzantine period with the old Roumanian 
style. It forms a fitting background for one of the most 
beautiful women of her day. 

The Fates were indeed generous to this Princess at 
birth. Gifted in an exceptional degree, and endowed with 
that most precious possession of all a rare and wonderful 
personality, she has a magnetic charm and graciousness of 
manner, a wide and generous-hearted interest that draws 
the best from everyone and the devotion of all. At her 
marriage at Sigmaringen at the age of seventeen she was 
so lovely that she was called the " angel without wings." 
When she came to the throne in October, 1916, she declared 
that " We hope that during our reign Roumania may grow 
in greatness and happiness ... to consecrate all my efforts 
to the alleviation of misery and pain is the mission which, 
as with all other great-hearted women of the past, I will 
devote myself, unfailingly true to the cause and welfare 
of the Roumanian people." And her word has been most 
nobly kept. 

Her life up till now had been an absolutely happy one, 
surrounded by every luxury, blessed with good health 



28 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 



and the most beautiful children — three boys and three 
girls, to whom she is absolutely devoted — fate seemed to 
have poured every good and perfect gift into her lap. 
Artistic and accomplished, beloved and adored by all, 
her great beauty and charm, her energetic high-spirited 
nature seemed to have wonderfully fitted her to be the 
queen of a country with a great future before it, and of a 
people so aesthetically responsive to her warm-hearted 
radiant personality. From the day of her entry into her 
adopted country she has endeared herself to the people 
by her generosity and kindness, and has thrown herself 
heart and soul into their interests and plans for their 
welfare and advancement. 

Beauty and tenderness of heart ! What better gifts 
can the gods bestow on one ? 

* * * * 

The nation that has not the Soleil des morts, as Balzac 
has called it, that does not possess in some measure the 
glory of past traditions of poetry or art, is a nation with- 
out a soul. It is not material success, the wealth, com- 
merce that counts in the higher civilization, it is the im- 
perishable little flame of genius in sculpture, painting, 
music or verse, which it hands on to its descendants that 
is the true criterion of the inner spirit of a race. 

In folk-song, proverbs and legends Roumania is very 
rich, but in the higher arts, the incessant barbarian 
invasions, the vicissitudes the country experienced stood 
in the way of development ; the ruthless conquerors plun- 
dering or destroying all they could lay their hands upon, 
though fortunately some very interesting Roman records 
and remains escaped extinction and still exist. 

One of the earliest sources of art in ancient days 



A LATIN OASIS 



29 



emanated from the great religious houses and churches. 
In mediaeval Roumania the plastic arts never broke away 
from the circle of religious formula ; their manifestations 
were invariably ecclesiastical in form and idea, and in 
the countries which professed the Greek Orthodox faith 
the Byzantine influence was naturally predominant. 
The beautiful, the pleasing and especially the nude were 
rigidly eschewed as a snare of the Evil One, and every- 
thing was sacrificed in order to attain a concentration of 
devotional piety in the arrangement and expression of 
the figure. The frescoes in the Roumanian churches and 
monasteries show this influence very characteristically, 
and it is only in architecture that there is an occasional 
departure from the hieratic and dogmatic style of 
Byzantine art. 

A conventional monotony in the figures and poses, a 
lack of plasticity, an accentuated symbolism, a piety and 
ecstasy, an attenuation of all material beauty are the 
rules of Byzantine art as laid down by the monk Denys 
in his celebrated guide, and accurately interpreted by 
his disciple the painter Manuel Panselinos. 

This manual found at Mount Athos in 1839 was the 
catechism and artistic guide that governed the artists of 
the Church throughout these Eastern lands. It was 
an art essentially dominated by the Church, and which 
allowed little liberty of execution or caprice to the 
artists. Nevertheless what it loses in inspiration it gains 
in richness and symbolism, and as an expression of a 
marvellously decorative and mystically religious craft, 
it is extraordinarily impressive. 

Not only in painting and in mosaics but in the civil as 
well as the ecclesiastical architecture this symbolical 



30 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 

intention was apparent, and various well-known authori- 
ties have shown that in construction, nearly every part of 
the sacred edifice had its profound mystic signification. 

In the frescoes of some of the churches and monasteries 
in Roumania all the horrors of the damned are portrayed 
with terrible morbid minutiae of detail. Many of these 
paintings belong, however, to the sixteenth and seven- 
teenth centuries and constitute probably a departure from 
the true Byzantine art, which emphasizes only the mys- 
tery, the immutability, the presence of the Supreme 
Being, the hierarchy of Heaven, the holy saints, virgins, 
and ecclesiastics, and the portrait-like presentments of 
devout emperors and empresses in their archaic but 
superbly sumptuous attire. 

This art lost something of its wonderful richness and 
its extreme rigidity of convention in its transplanting 
to other provinces and lands, but this loss may be 
said to be balanced by a naivete, a simpler charm born 
of the pious rustic soul of the Roumanian people. 

The early literature of Roumania consisted of old 
chronicles, lives of the saints, legends and translations 
from the Slavonic and Greek literature. 

In 1864, when the great monasteries and convents of 
Roumania were secularized, their precious relics of gold 
and silver, chalice, plates, reliquaries, crucifixes and 
missals were installed in the museum at Bucharest. Here 
also were placed the elaborate sacerdotal vestments of 
sumptuous design and colour, splendid in fairy' stitchery 
of gold, pearls and precious stones exhibiting the perfect 
craftsmanship so characteristic of the magnificent period 
of Byzantine culture. The unique treasure of Petrossa 
called by the Roumanians the " Hen and Chickens/' 



A LATIN OASIS 



3i 



consisting of a great platter and twelve magnificent 
pieces of gold plate, richly embossed and encrusted with 
jewels, is also in the museum of the Roumanian capital. 
It was found by a peasant in Buzeu in 1837 while plough- 
ing his field, and is attributed to the period of Athanaric, 
King of the Visigoths. Twenty-two pieces were found, but 
many of them were broken, and only twelve perfect 
specimens are now shown. Some splendid gold crowns 
and barbaric jewellery were found at the same time, and 
these have been pronounced unique specimens of the art 
of the Goths. 

The Byzantine was not the only art that influenced 
mediaeval Roumanian life and culture. The Venetians 
who came to the country in the seventeenth century to 
paint the portraits of the boyars influenced the Rou- 
manian artists in form and colour, as well as in the design 
and modelling of jewellery and plate, icons, tapestry and 
the dress of the period. 

Perhaps the most distinctly national type of Roumanian 
architectural art is to be seen in the old fortress houses or 
koulas which I have described elsewhere. They are very 
original in structure and as far as I know are not often 
found in any other European country. 

The many monasteries and convents are built on 
beautiful hill sites or beside streams ; the earlier ones are 
of the Byzantine type and are often surrounded by deep 
walls behind which the people from the plains and villages 
retired when the enemy were overrunning the land. 
They have huge gates called Clopnitza and a Fundank 
or guest-house where travellers are lodged, and their 
peculiarly shaped cupolas of burnished copper or gilt 
metal shine for miles around. 



32 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 



All over the country one finds numbers of beautiful 
old stone crosses and tombstones, enriched with carving 
and inscriptions of great interest. They were placed 
near every well, to bless and protect the precious fluid, 
in the meadows, among the leafy woods, by the road- 
side — sometimes alone, arrestingly beautiful, standing 
deep in the wild flowers and waving grasses — or else in 
groups made of wood with crudely painted figures of 
saints adorning them. Some are high and very old with 
the names of those who erected this simple testimony of 
their faith carved on them — others have little roofs to 
keep the snow and rain from weathering their gnarled 
time-worn heads. Almost all are quaint, many are very 
beautiful. 

Roumanian intellectual culture is of very recent 
development, retarded as it has been by centuries of 
strife. Nevertheless during the short space of seventy 
odd years — -which represents the period of modern 
Roumania's existence — in the upper classes the national 
temperament with its enthusiastic and mental endow- 
ment has developed at a much greater rate than that of 
any of the other Balkan Powers, and has produced artists, 
writers, and scientific men of acknowledged ability. But 
it must be noted that her art is not so much a complete 
national growth as a reflection of Occidental influences. 
Since the Phanariot days the French influence has been 
paramount, and in recent times the licole des Beaux- Arts 
at Paris has been the nursery for the national artistic 
development. The late Queen Elizabeth, better known 
as Carmen Sylva, greatly fostered the intellectual inspira- 
tion of the nation, and Queen Marie, who has also much 
artistic and poetic perception, has worthily followed her 



A LATIN OASIS 



33 



example, and at her palace has welcomed the various 
poets, artists, writers and musicians, affording them 
every encouragement and opportunity to develop their 
gifts. 

* * * * 

Life in Bucharest for those who have the leisure and 
the wherewithal is an exciting and amusing pastime. 
There are endless distractions for the gay and pleasure 
loving — music, beauty, joie de vivre, and money to burn ! 
What potent lures for the light-hearted youth of a 
nation ! 

And the city, how it hums ! Like a brilliant top 
spinning merrily. The day is not long enough to crowd 
in the many interests and delights, and there is hardly 
time to sleep ! 

Much entertaining is done in their beautiful houses 
but far more at the cafes, Enescu and Capsa being the 
prime favourites and always crowded. The prices, like 
the shops, vie with those of Monte Carlo. The chef 
is a master artist summoning the wares of Autolycus 
from the distant marts of France, while the owners 
one might surely suppose could give points to the 
" rake-the-dollar-in-quick " specialist of New York or 
Chicago. 

Bucharest, though a city of opulence and gaiety, so 
close to the East, shows no sign of the " Kef " of the 
Turk, that indolent lethargic outlook of the Oriental 
which has always been such a barrier to their progress, 
nor yet of the fatalist "Nichevo" (it doesn't matter) of 
the Slav ! 

No, everyone seems alert, ready for anything ; business, 
yes, but always and decidedly pleasure ! But Roumania 

D 



34 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 

is full of contrasts, and when one finds a really busy hard- 
working man he is abnormally so, though never coming 
quite up to the standard of extreme concentration shown 
by the American and some Englishmen of affairs, who 
often, in the frenzied pursuit of wealth, have forgotten 
what pleasure is, how to play, and that the music of our 
lives depends upon the rests as much as on the notes. 
Like the American, however, they take the same eager 
interest in strangers, their news and opinions, and show 
a lively curiosity as to what is thought of their country 
and customs. 

Though Slavs and Turks have invaded the country in 
the past, the former has left the greater influence on the 
national character, and this is but slight ; the presence 
of a considerable number of Slav words in their vocabulary 
being perhaps the most outstanding effect of that in- 
fluence. 

The Latin strain is even more marked and obvious 
among the Roumanians in the remoter villages of 
Transylvania, and their language is an indisputable 
proof of their origin. 

The whole of their political and social bias is towards 
the Latin rather than the Slav nations. The language of 
France, that dear but distant sister, is spoken by the 
upper classes ; Russian, that of their nearest neighbour, 
rarely. All who can afford it have English nurses and 
governesses for their children, and the babies often 
babble English before they can speak a word of Rou- 
manian. 

Whether for good or evil, French influence and teach- 
ing have moulded the life of the upper classes consider- 
ably. Apart from the strong ties of sympathy between 



A LATIN OASIS 



35 



the nations, it undoubtedly owes some of its early origin 
to the Phanariot Princes, whose families living amidst 
the squalid and barbarous atmosphere of Stamboul 
endeavoured to seek enlightenment and culture from 
Paris and in a study of the French literature and language. 
This slender coating of civilization followed them when 
they became Princes of the Principalities. 



/ Roumania, unlike the neighbouring states of Serbia, 
"Greece and Bulgaria, is the only one which has preserved 



an aristocracy. The boyars or nobles were the great 
feudal landlords of the past, and though their property 
and rights have been greatly curtailed they still survive, 
a fairly powerful class. They have their faults as well as 
their virtues. Some of them are disfigured by devoting 
themselves to a ceaseless pursuit of pleasure, an existence 
given up to luxury, living out of their country and 
spending their fortunes in a luxurious life at Monte 
Carlo and Paris. Others happily with a higher sense of 
national duty have taken up the interests of their 
estates and tenants, and aided by their natural gifts as a 
Latin race, have proved themselves patriots of marked 
political ability, as well as diplomats of acknowledged 
ability and acumen. 

They are inveterate talkers ; warm-hearted, inquisitive 
and loquacious. At their parties they pass long hours at 
a time — and well into the morning — listening to the 
Lautari or gipsy musicians occasionally, but principally 
talking, laughing, eating and drinking light wines, cakes 
or sweet champagne. Climate may undoubtedly have 
something to do with this pronounced zest for midnight 
conversational activity, but I do not think any house in 
England except perhaps the House of Commons could 




36 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 

support such an orgy of talk, and talk, and yet more 
talk as this gay light-hearted people maintain without a 
sense of exhaustion. 

The music is not listened to seriously, and* inter- 
ruptions are constant, the melodies being frequently and 
suddenly changed to another at some one's wish. 

In appearance the men of the upper class are very like 
the Italians, dark, slender and well-proportioned. The 
dark type predominates over the blonde. Of medium 
height, they have wide foreheads, clear-cut features, 
small ears, hands and feet, and quick intelligent eyes. 
With an unusually keenly developed olfactory sense 
they have also a quick ear for musical intonation, 
although not remarkable for any special musical en- 
dowment. 

The men of the upper class have charming manners, 
lively and courteous, but their gaiety is often only skin 
deep and conceals a strain of morbid melancholy. 
Generous to prodigality, ambitious and eager ; capricious 
often and sometimes cruel, they are yet rarely revengeful 
and are a curious mixture of dreaming and action, weak- 
ness and vigour that shows the various influences that 
have affected their race. 

The standard of intellectual culture will be a revela- 
tion to those who know little of Roumania and imagine 
her as a lower civilization than our own. The education 
and mental equipment of the young man or girl of the 
leisured classes is higher than our own, and they are in 
general far wider read, expressing themselves easily, 
gracefully and fluently in at least three languages. They 
are interesting and delightful companions with a wit and 
quickness of thought that tosses the ball of repartee 



A LATIN OASIS 



37 



lightly from one to another. In politics they are versatile 
and impassioned speakers, and are keen travellers, often 
journeying far afield. 

Gay, witty, amusing, who can deny that the Latins 
above all races know how to squeeze the juice out of the 
fruit of life, and with their brilliant toumure d* esprit and 
subtle intellect they are one of the most delightful people 
to mix among. 

Perhaps in our staid, more serious way we might 
consider them frivolous, perhaps they promise more 
than they perform and certainly conjugal fidelity is not 
one of their conspicuous qualities. They do not follow 
Richardson's advice that in choosing a wife one must be 
careful not to choose any one else's ! 

Ardent, impulsive, susceptible and adventurous in 
love, their jealousy is soon roused and they quarrel 
quickly ; but another pleasing face will soon oust the 
erstwhile adored one, and in love, as some one has said, 
the Roumanian galant finds the word " always " generally 
but means goodwill towards the future and confidence in 
himself. 

It has been said that a woman, to be beautiful, should 
be English as to her head, French to her waist and Arab 
for her limbs and feet. Though not conforming to this 
standard, yet the women both of the peasantry and 
upper classes have as a rule more than the usual share 
of good looks. Like the men they are dark, of medium 
height, with a grace and vivacity of speech that contrast 
strikingly with the soft, semi-Oriental expression of their 
eyes and indolent charm of movement. Proud of their 
Latin blood, of French influence, and friendships made in 
school days spent in Paris, they are intensely Western in 



38 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 

ideas and mode of life and are as removed and different 
from their neighbours in Russia, Serbia and Bulgaria as 
if the whole width of Europe divided them. 

Brought up in the same strict conventions as the 
French girl, the Roumanian girl, as soon as she marries, 
takes every advantage of her new-found freedom, dis- 
cards restraints and dips into a whirl of flirtation and 
social distraction of every sort. If it is true that men 
retire into marriage, women emerge from it, then the 
young Roumanian mondaine, gay, high-spirited and 
amusing, with much elegance in dress, zest in life, a 
temperament and a wide quest for emotional experience, 
tries her wings pretty freely, and in general leads a 
lively existence. 

Of late years the rigorous supervision and strictness 
with which the debutante was guarded has been some- 
what relaxed, and has given way to a more wholesome 
and liberal standard, and a goodly number of the younger 
generation are copying the freer life of the English girl. 
It is a considerable gain, both physically and mentally, 
the widened horizon carrying with it more varied interests 
and a less self-conscious outlook. 

She is generally well educated and though not intel- 
lectual she has much natural facility. Her reading is 
light but ranges over the novels and works of the English, 
French and Italian writers, and it is not unusual to find 
her conversant and able to hold her own in discussing the 
literature of our country. 

The influence and example of their beloved and 
beautiful English-born Queen, with her passion for out- 
of-door life and healthy exercise, her keen interest in 
country life and interests, the welfare and development 



A LATIN OASIS 



39 



of the peasants' industries, has largely influenced and 
widened their outlook and extended the sphere of what 
used to be but a gay little butterfly existence. The last 
two years of suspense, while all Europe was battling 
against " Thuggism in Europe," has deepened her nature 
somewhat and roused the finer qualities dormant under 
the light exterior. A change, subtle and slight perhaps, 
but nevertheless foreshadowing the part she may be 
called upon to play in the stern tests and trials of the 
future. 

* * * * 

To the stranger it is perhaps the picture of the 
simple, hard-working peasant mother or wife that leaps 
to one's memory when thinking of the women of Rou- 
mania. The gay cosmopolitanism of the aristocracy, the 
comfortable independence and prosperity of the middle 
classes are more or less similar and familiar to the 
peoples of the West. But the peasant woman, whether 
she be building a house, working as hard as any man in 
the fields or farmyard, or rearing her large family with 
tireless love and devotion, is the real heart that feeds the 
nation's arteries. With 

" Kindly eyes ; lips grown softly sweet 
With murmured blessings over sleeping babes, 
A knowledge in their deep unfaltering eyes 
That far outreaches all philosophy." 

Her toil is ceaseless, her pleasures few. Her faith in 
Divine protection is illimitable and she patiently accepts 
all that comes to her in weal or woe as destiny — a fate 
unalterable. 

At her loom the winter nights she sings the ballads of 
her country, keeping alight the ancient fighting tradi- 



40 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 



tions of her race, instilling the fire of patriotism into the 
hearts of her children. 

Her sons are indeed the future swords of Roumania, 
but she is the soul of that land ! 

Before closing these brief glimpses of Roumanian life 
and customs and dipping into the past history of her 
people, I must include a short summary of those who by 
their genius and patriotic ardour have helped to mould 
the intellectual development of the country. 

Among the most prominent of her poets are Vasile 
Alexandri and Michael Eminesco. The former, born of 
good family, had a gracious sonorous muse, through which 
he sang of the beauties of his pastoral land, the grandeur 
of the mountain ranges, nature in her many phases. 
Like the Heiducks, the heroes of old, he sang to the 

"... Forest the wonders I see in my dreams, 
And the forest loves to hear the tale of my dreaming, 
More than the song of birds, 
More than the murmur of leaves." 

The best of these nature poems are included in his 
charming Pastels. 

He devoted much of his life and great talent to collect- 
ing the very beautiful collection of folk-poems which the 
country is so rich in. He was the inspirer and mouth- 
piece for the dreams and aspirations of his awakening 
country, and in the easy flowing music of his verse 
vibrates the very heart and soul of his country people. 
Towards the end of his life he wrote some fine epic poems 
under the title of Legends. 

Eminesco was of quite another strain. His was a 
fragile spirit which floated out, pale, mysterious and 



A LATIN OASIS 



4i 



tragic from the golden wake of Alexandras tranquil 
dignity, and whom he thus described: "This king of 
poetry for ever young and happy." Eminesco's verse was 
of a delicate poignant beauty, reflecting as it were the 
lonely silver beauty of moonlight, the dark storm-driven 
clouds racing athwart her face, the deep-cut sombre 
shadows she casts on the world below and the subtle 
mournfulness of the crepuscule that heralds her approach. 
His form struck across the more conventional declama- 
tory style of the nation's verse with a strange elusive 
harmony, profound, ironic, mournful. His work in com- 
parison with Alexandras is of a higher artistic quality 
and haunts one by its deep philosophy and melancholy 
charm. His sonnets are very beautiful, and his Satires 
vibrate with a verbal force and magnificence unequalled 
by other Roumanian singers. He was the first writer to 
emerge from the peasant world, for until his appearance, 
poetry, letters and art had been considered rather as an 
appanage of the aristocracy alone. But his life was a 
tragic one passed in a fierce struggle for material existence, 
amid trouble, poverty and ill-health, until exhausted by 
sickness and sorrow he died insane. 

Cerna, a poet who died some years ago at Leipzig, was 
of great promise, and his death while quite young has 
been a great loss to Roumanian literature. His verse 
was very beautiful and full of philosophic optimism. 
He sang in ardent strain of the joy of life, of the wonder- 
ful moments of love, those moments which though 
transient represent the only approach to immortality 
granted us by the gods : — 

" If love is sin, then glory to Him who created it. 
He made the sin so exceedingly beautiful/' 



42 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 



are lines he wrote in a poem regarding the fall of our 
first parents in Paradise. 

As dramatists and writers Caragiale and Jon Creanga 
are well known. The former wrote delightful comedies, 
while Creanga — who was of peasant birth — has produced 
some very fine prose and is a writer who has published 
many interesting stories depicting the true mentality of 
the Moldavian peasantry. 

Negrutzi and Zamphiresco are fine novelists — the 
former rather in the style of Sir Walter Scott — writing 
with literary and artistic value, while Sadoveanu and 
B. Voinesti are among representatives of the younger 
generation. 

Titu Maiorescu's name as a critic is well known and he 
was the founder of the first serious literary review of 
Roumania, the Convokbiri Liter are, which holds a de- 
servedly high position, uniting under its banner the lead- 
ing intellectual spirits of the generation. 

In painting, Grigoresco is an artist of much merit, 
while Enesco as a musician and composer is well known 
to the elite of the musical world of Europe. 

In the domain of history Xenopol holds an eminent 
position. He has written the Istoria Romanilor in six 
volumes, and several works in French. Some years ago 
he was elected a member of the Societe de Sociologie in 
Paris in succession to the late Lord Avebury. 

Iorga is one of the country's most distinguished and 
prominent writers. He has published a history of the 
Roumanian people, a history of the Ottoman Empire, 
and one on the Byzantine which has been translated 
into English. But it is not only as an historian that 
he can claim the proud position he holds in the eyes of 



A LATIN OASIS 



43 



his countrymen, but also as the leading spirit in his 
country's intellectual development. His inspiring in- 
fluence, his warm enthusiasm, his fine critical judgment, 
his astounding capacity for work and prolific creative 
faculty have been a great force in developing 
Roumania's literary life, and imparting to it its truly 
national character, and under his influence Roumanian 
literature has re-found its true path. 

M. Beza the Vlach poet and prose writer has a wide 
knowledge of history and a deep sympathetic under- 
standing of his nomadic Macedonian kinsmen. His 
collection of stories, Pe Drumuri (on the road), are 
somewhat in the style of Turguenev's A Sportsman' s 
Sketches. He was the first writer to translate into prose 
with a concentration of expression, a discretion of feeling, 
as the well-known critic of Convorbiri, S. Mehedintz, 
has said, the soul of the wandering Vlach. He has 
depicted the roving life of this very interesting people, 
their long caravans that creep over the road winding 
towards the melancholy stillness of the hills, and their 
mysterious old-world rites and customs. A great admirer 
of English literature, he has written essays on Shake- 
speare, Carlyle, Ruskin, from De Quincey, Keats, some 
of which he has translated into Roumanian as well as 
Oscar Wilde's De Profundis. 

Transylvania — the lost province — has contributed much 
to Roumania's intellectual development, and her exiled 
sons have shown how deep a bond of national union, 
Latin culture and undying devotion unites them to the 
motherland. 

Among the poets from Transylvania Cosbuc, though 
never a great singer like Eminesco, stands very high in 



44 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 

the esteem of his countrymen. He combated to some 
extent the rather morbid atmosphere created by 
Emine^co's muse, and sang of Transylvania with a 
wealth of diction, a variety of expression and cadence 
that has placed him higher than any other Transylvanian 
poet. In a poem bearing the title " The Poet/' he begins : 

" I am a soul in my people's soul, 
And I . . . sing its joys and sorrows. 5 ' 

Octavian Goga and St. Iosif were also poets of Tran- 
sylvanian birth—" brothers from the Ardeal." Goga 
launched forth his soul and brain with flaming ardour 
towards the cause of his martyred and oppressed kinsmen 
under Magyar tyranny. To his stirring verse and 
prose is partly ascribed the influence exercised on the 
Roumanian people in declaring war on the Central 
Powers. He represents in poetry the last note in irre- 
dentism, but in artistic quality he is inferior to Cosbuc or 
even to St. Iosif. 

Iosif is best known for his Patriarhale and his Croyances 
which are full of a pure and delicate lyrical beauty. His 
poem " To Arms ! " was sung by the troops on the first 
day of mobilization (1913) as they marched beneath the 
windows of his room where he lay, delirious and dying. 
He has translated Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's 
Dream, also Shelley's To a Skylark. 

A curious and tragic fate seems to have haunted the 
lives of several of Roumania's sweetest singers. Angeel, 
a collaborator of Iosif, a poet of delicately passionate 
vein, committed suicide ; while Corina, Iosif s adored 
little daughter, to whom he had dedicated the most 
lovely of his poems, was blown to pieces by a Zeppelin 
bomb while playing in a garden in Bucharest. Chendi, 



A LATIN OASIS 



45 



Iosifs friend and compatriot, a critic of no mean 
calibre, fell a victim to the same dread malady as 
his friend. Unable to face the pitiless, slow agony of 
disease he threw himself from the window and met a 
brutal but quicker end on the stones below. 1 

Again, Garleano and Ion Adam were other fine poetic 
spirits that an implacable destiny seemed to track 
and who finished their lives in suffering, in the 
full plenitude of their talent and before their fortieth 
year ! The best part of a literary generation — not count- 
ing the victims that may fall in war — have been wiped 
out, but the legendary vitality and endowment of the 
race will persist and new stars will surely shine forth to 
lighten a shadowed land. 

1 La Revue, 1917. Victor Eftimiu; 



CHAPTER III 



THE BIRTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF A NATION 
The Roumanian never dies. — Old Proverb, 

ROUMANIA has a proverb, " Water flows, the 
rocks remain." To realize the truth of this 
and understand the Roumanians of to-day, 
one has only to glance back over the pages of 
their early history, and note the incessant waves of 
conquest, oppression and cruelty that swept over the 
country during sixteen centuries, and note too how 
every conqueror, in turn, tried to crush and submerge 
this Latin people under a welter of anarchy and chaos. 
But like rocks these storms only imbedded them the more 
deeply in the soil ; and the torrent of barbarians enslaved 
and tortured, but never succeeded in annihilating them. 

Roumania is by racial affinity a Latin country. There 
are, therefore, a few who affirm-that neither geographic- 
ally, ethnologically nor politically is she one of the Balkan 
Powers. Yet it can be safely asserted that in spite of a 
certain justification for this pose or position she is, never- 
theless, by reason of her political and social evolution as 
historically developed, by her folk-lore, literature, art, 
and much of her national mentality undoubtedly a 
Balkan state. 

With reference to the views of the minority, Mr. Seton 
Watson has said : " This is a pose which has its good and 

46 



BIRTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF A NATION 47 



its bad sides, and which, indeed, is true or false very much 
according to the way in which it is applied. But no 
serious student of history can accept this pose, and it is a 
satisfactory sign of the times that the most distinguished 
historian of modern Roumania, Professor Jorga, is devot- 
ing much of his energy to making Bucharest a centre of 
Balkan historical studies, and is never tired of emphasiz- 
ing the solidarity of Roumania and the other Balkan 
States. He is perfectly justified in arguing that the 
Roumanian element has always been one of the chief 
' cultural ' elements in the history of the Peninsula, and 
that history and geography have combined to assure to 
Roumania a still more prominent role in the future." 1 

/The Balkans lie south of the Danube — Roumania to 
the north of it. But proud though she may be of her 
Latin blood and tradition, which have made her the chief 
centre of culture in the Peninsula, much of her future 
development is indissolubly linked up with the Balkan 
States adjoining her, Serbia, Bulgaria and Greece. 

The origin of the Roumanian race, though much dis- 
puted, is clear on the main points. The earliest in- 
habitants of the Roumania of to-day were the Getae, or 
Dacians, who inhabited the shore of the Euxine south 
of the Danube, now called the Dobrudja. The Roman 
geographer Pliny tells us the former was the Greek and 
; the latter the Latin name for this people. 

Herodotus speaks of them in these early days as " the 
bravest and most honourable of all the Thracian tribes." 
They were very warlike, constantly fighting with the 
Greek colonies settled on the west coast of the Black 
Sea, and they even endeavoured to check the advance 

1 Roumania and the Great War. 



48 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 

of King Darius of Persia. About the year 390 B.C. they 
crossed the Danube, settling in the country north of it 
and increasing greatly in numbers as they acquired the 
rudiments of civilization. About 111 B.C. the Romans, 
advancing through Macedonia, came into conflict with 
them. The succeeding years constantly saw them cross- 
ing the Danube to harry the Roman province of Moesia, 
now Bulgaria ; and in the fortified towns of the Black 
Sea, the inhabitants closed their gates at sunset, so fearful 
were they of these stern warriors. 

Ovid, who was sent here in exile, describes the natives 
as having " rough voices, savage features ; and a striking 
image of the god Mars." That Mars was a good god to 
reflect in those early days is obvious, since life was one 
long fight for existence and the sword was a vital instru- 
ment of justice. But notwithstanding their rough 
exterior traits, this people were not invariably uncouth 
in thought or mind, and had worked out for themselves 
a philosophy of no mean standard. They believed in the 
migration of souls, and an immortality that regarded 
death as a prelude only to a greater world. Their sage 
and teacher, Zamolxis, taught them that submission of 
the body to the will was the true discipline, virtue the 
supreme good, and vice the only evil. Herodotus called 
them the " Immortals," for they never spoke of " dying." 

The natural martial courage of the race proved a fine 
foundation for the superimposed layer of civilization 
introduced by the great Roman Emperor Trajan, who 
conquered the Dacians in a.d. 106. Their last King, 
Decebalus — a great chieftain, whose name, " Strength of 
the Dacians," speaks for his renown — was victorious over 
the Roman legions in the early part of his reign, exacting 



BIRTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF A NATION 49 



an annual tribute from the Emperor Domitian. On the 
accession of Trajan in 98 B.C., a determined effort, in 
which no vigour was spared, was made to conquer this 
nation described by Pliny as an " invincible enemy." 
After desperate battles Decebalus had to surrender ; 
but no sooner was Trajan back in Rome than revolt 
broke out again. The revolt was crushed, no quarter 
being given on either side ; Decebalus, fighting to the 
last and seeing the fortunes of his side waning, com- 
mitted suicide. Thus in 106 Dacia became a Roman 
province. 

All who have ever been to Rome will remember the 
incidents of this great conquest, which have been im- 
mortalized by Apollodorus, the great Damascene archi- 
tect, in the bas-relief of Trajan's column. Here stands a 
priceless commentary, in marble, on the history of the 
Dacians. It is a marvellous memorial of a great struggle 
between warring races, and part of this extraordinarily 
vivid picture in stone shows 2500 Dacian and Roman 
warriors locked in a deadly combat. 

The great Trajan brought prosperity and wisdom, as 
well as the sword, to this martial race ; and fewer nations 
absorbed more quickly and less reluctantly the benevolent 
influence of a conqueror. So just was his rule, so judicious 
was the conduct of the Roman legions planted in the 
country to stem the rush of barbarians from the north, 
that the Dacians soon fraternized and actually inter- 
married freely with their vanquishers. The characteristics 
of the two races, the courageous and Spartan-like virtues 
of the ancient Dacians, and the equally martial but more 
highly developed qualities of Trajan's famous legions, 
were thus perpetuated in their offspring. 

E 



50 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 



It is an astonishing phenomenon and a striking example 
of the mysterious and virile influence of race, to see a 
nation after a lapse of sixteen centuries showing so 
unequivocally to-day its Latin strain, in its language — a 
" soft bastard Latin " — its physique, customs, habits 
and dress, and yet separated from its parent strain by 
half the width of a continent. 

Under Trajan's rule schools were founded, cities and 
aqueducts built — the remains of which can still be seen ; 
also the wonderful Roman roads, so celebrated in many 
lands, were made, and exist in many places to this day. 
Of these, the best known, called by Trajan's name, cuts 
through the depths of the Carpathians at the celebrated 
Turnu Rosu or Red Tower Pass. 

It is interesting to note that in the records of the allot- 
ment of the land to the inhabitants, the word " paternally " 
constantly appears ; denoting the politic and just ad- 
ministration of the great Emperor ; while the world- 
renowned Edict of Caracullas — giving to every inhabitant 
of the Empire the privilege of calling himself a true-born 
Roman, a nomenclature upheld by the law — reconciled 
the conquered to the loss of their independence. 

Dacia at this time was considerably larger than the 
/ Roumania of to-day, comprising Transylvania and Buko- 
S vina, now under Austrian rule ; Moldavia, the northern 
portion of the country ; Bessarabia, taken by Russia in 
1878 ; and Wallachia, or Muntenia, as the Dacians or 
early inhabitants of Roumania called it. The country 
rapidly settled down under the Roman occupation, and 
became a flourishing province, its capital being Apulam, 
now Karlsburg. During the reign of the Emperor 
Aurelian, in 270, Dacia was abandoned by the Romans, 




"pastor" or shepherd boy in winter coat. 



BIRTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF A NATION 51 



and the next thousand years saw this rich and beautiful 
land invaded and oppressed in turn by Huns, Goths, 
Slavs, and a wild, savage and debauched Turkish tribe, 
the Avars. The Goths and Slavs settled down in Hungary, 
Slavonia, Bosnia, etc., thus separating the Roumanians 
from the Latin race of their early origin. 

These waves of tyrannical oppression, when horde 
after horde of savage tribes succeeded each other, are 
lost in the remote obscurity of the past, and only dim 
records of anarchy and chaos remain. But, strong and 
enduring, the Latin element in this race persisted, the 
one permanent feature in these dark ages of barbarism 
and conquest. Isolated and afar, on the outskirts of 
Europe, with Turks, Tartars and Huns sweeping con- 
stantly over them, their unquenchable spirit was nevei 
submerged, never extinguished and was even strong 
enough to filter through the savagery of the Gothic 
influence to a slight degree. 

In the thirteenth century light slowly began to illumine 
these tragic days of the country's birth. The terrible 
tides of savagery gradually receded, and the inextinguish- 
able spirit of the Roumanians — Daco-Romans, as some 
call the early Roumanians — gradually crept forth once 
more. In 1290, Radou Negrou or Rudolph the Black, a 
wild mountain chief, came forth with many of the 
original colonists, who had fled with him to the caves and 
great forests in the mountain heights. With desperate 
courage this band of cave-dwellers gave battle to their 
foes, inflicting serious defeat upon them, and the Princi- 
pality of Wallachia was created soon afterwards. Fired 
by this success Dragosch, another chieftain, successfully 
attacked and defeated the foe. An old legend tells u 



52 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 



that as Dragosch emerged from the Passes he came to the 
banks of a charming stream in a fertile land where much 
game abounded. Resting here, he called the stream 
Moldava and the land Moldavia, after his faithful hound 
and constant companion, Molda. Conquering the country, 
he created the principality of Moldavia, and so from the 
welter and stress of the past, the kernel of present-day 
Roumania struggled slowly and painfully to life. 

| The course of Roumania's evolution was destined to 
ibe by the bloody path of war, and the succeeding cen- 
turies were passed in a veritable vortex of turmoil, an 
eternal, interminable fight to resist the savage domination 
of the Turk. 

It must never be forgotten that Roumania and the 
neighbouring nations, unconquerable in spirit, unceasing 
in sacrifice, stemmed the tide of vandalism during five 
ghastly centuries of cruelty and national abasement. 
Their heroism contributed in large measure to the general 
cause of civilization by enabling the nations of Western 
Europe to develop and pursue in peace their natural 
work of advancement and progress. History ever repeats 
itself ; and again, in the twentieth century, these " little " 
nations, Serbia, Montenegro and now Roumania, have 
risen and heroically endeavoured to stem the advance of 
the reincarnated Hun, bestial and remorseless in his lust 
for conquest and blood. 

In the glimpses we have of these far-off days the 
treachery and brutality of the conqueror alternate with 
examples of the stubborn tenacity, courage and vigour of 
a race that, fighting through centuries, refused to be 
exterminated, and many stirring episodes strike like 



BIRTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF A NATION 53 



gleams of sunshine through the gloom and despair ofi 
these pages of distant history. Only one or two of the > 
rulers of the Principalities can be mentioned in this 1 
bird's-eye view of the past. Mircea, the first great Prince j 
of Wallachia — the rich grain-growing district stretching / 
from the Carpathians along the banks of the Danube to 
the river Buzau — was a man of great intelligence and 
power. His reign extended from 1380-1418, and Xenopol 
describes him as " one of the most remarkable figures in 
the history of the Roumanian principalities." 

During his thirty-eight years' reign he fought incessantly 
against the Turk, ever striving to free his Christian land. 
He summoned his army to the help of Serbia, ready to 
strike with her a blow for freedom against the infidel and 
tyrant, and although the Serbs were defeated and almost 
swept out of existence at the bloody field of Kossovo, his 
action prevented in some degree their complete extinc- 
tion. 

Few people realize that it was the Roumanian race 
that gave the two greatest heroes of the fifteenth century 
to history : John Hunyady, who led the Hungarian 
armies so victoriously against Islam ; and Stefan-cel- 
Mare, or Stephen the Great, Prince of Moldavia. The 
latter was one of the great outstanding figures of these 
turbulent early days, earning with Sobieski, Eugene and 
Hunyady a proud place as one of the four bulwarks of 
Christendom against the infidel invasion. Pope Sixtus IV 
called him the " Athlete of Christ," and wrote to him . 
" The high deeds which thou hast accomplished against 
the infidel Turks have rendered thy name so glorious that 
all of one accord sing thy praises." He not only repelled 
the Turks, who outnumbered his forces by three to one, 



54 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 

but also the Poles who invaded his territory. He made 
his capital at Bukovina ; and during his long reign of 
fifty years his country prospered greatly. A statue has 
been erected to him in Jassy, the old capital of Moldavia, 
to commemorate his efforts to realize the high ideals of 
the nation's destiny. After his death the country again 
fell under the bitter yoke of Islam, the people were 
oppressed beyond endurance, and every revolt was sup- 
pressed with the utmost cruelty. 

In 1593 Michael the Brave was chosen Prince. His 
reign is one of the most brilliant episodes in the history 
of the country, and his name as a great national hero is 
enshrined in the heart of his countrymen. He struggled 
so heroically against Magyars, Poles and Turks that for 
a brief space his kingdom again reverted to its original 
size, and included Transylvania, Wallachia, Moldavia, 
Bessarabia and the Bukovina — " The Greater Roumania "- 
dreamed of by the patriots of to-day. He was a great 
leader of men, and the country acknowledged his genius 
with pride and devotion. He was extraordinarily success- 
ful in welding together the different clans, overcoming 
their jealousy of each other, and training them into an 
army that achieved great and successful victories over 
the Turks and Hungarians. Again and again the Sultan 
sent his armies, led by his ablest generals, to subjugate 
his powerful young neighbour and bring him to heel, but 
once across the Danube, few of his legions ever lived to 
return. 

Michael was betrayed by Austrian treachery at the 
height of his power. Austria, hard pressed and in diffi- 
culties, had appealed to him for help. Consenting to do 
so, he, at the head of his army, joined the Austrian 



BIRTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF A NATION 55 

forces. Basta, the Austrian General, begged an audience 
of him on pretext of consulting him as to the disposition 
of the forces, then foully attacked and murdered him in 
his tent. 

Into the brief period of his brilliant reign — only eight 
years — he compressed the arduous work and aims of a 
lifetime, and with his death the heroic period of Rou- 
manian history comes to an end. His statue in Bucharest 
is, to the Roumanian citizen, what Nelson's Column in 
Trafalgar Square is to us — the great patriotic rallying 
centre for the heartfelt desires and aims of the people. 

A curious and very interesting point connected with 
his appointment to the throne lies in the fact that it was 
Edward Barton, the English Ambassador at the Porte, 
who used his influence with the Sultan in getting him 
chosen Prince. It is good to know in these present days 
of Roumania's agony, when her eyes are turned towards 
England, the land of freedom, that in these far-off times 
it was an Englishman who realized the genius of this 
great Prince and was instrumental in helping him towards 
the regeneration of his country. His reign, however, 
was but a " brilliant intermezzo/' for thus a distinguished 
Roumanian historian describes this splendid but alas ! 
too short, revival of the national spirit. 

After his death the principalities again lapsed into a 
state of vassalage under the Turk. And yet they never 
succumbed so completely to the Turkish conqueror's rule 
as did their neighbours of Serbia, Bulgaria and even- 
Hungary. 

The Turkish conquerors did not dare to place their 
Pashas as administrators on the Moldavian or Wallachian 
thrones, even when Buda (now Buda-Pesth) was the 



56 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 

capital of a Turkish pasha. They contented themselves 
with other forms of oppression, and the exaction of a 
heavy annual tribute. Thus, though the native aristo- 
cracy of Serbia and Bulgaria was exterminated, the 
nobles or boyars of Roumania, though oppressed and 
powerless shadows, still fought for liberty and escaped 
extinction. 

j During the seventeenth century the principalities were 
at the mercy of inefficient native rulers, impotent and 
servile under the Greek influence which was asserting 
itself in the country. Many of these people had been 
attracted from Stamboul to a land where riches, in the 
shape of extortion, could be quickly exacted from a 
hopeless and voiceless peasantry. For in the words of an 
Italian envoy " the land sweated bloods There was no 
stability ; the boyars or nobles were always fighting and 
intriguing against each other, each striving for his own 
advantage with a complete disregard for the welfare of 
the people in general, their only bond in common being 
that they solidly united against the Greek aspirants for 
the thrones of the two Principalities. 

Between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries only 
three of these native rulers stand out with any distinc- 
tion. Bassarab and Vasile Lupu or Basil the Wolf are 
noteworthy as introducing a new era of law reform, and 
the development of a system of general culture. Bassarab 
started the first printing machine in Bucharest, and the 
first book printed was his collection of canon laws. 
Others quickly followed, and were printed in the Rou- 
manian vernacular, displacing the Slav, which had up to 
then been the language of literature. / Basil's criminal 
code, of an eye for an eye, though savage, was probably 



BIRTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF A NATION 57 

a necessary prelude to any system of law and order. 
The punishments meted out were terrible. 

He who committed arson was burnt alive. 

He who seduced had boiling lead poured down his 
throat. 

He who committed bigamy was strapped naked on a 
horse, and whipped through the streets of the town. 

Sherban Cantacuzene, who reigned in 1679, continued 
the work of general culture and enlightenment. He 
fostered the dawning spirit of national independence 
that flickered up for a moment, translated the Bible, and 
greatly aided by the help of a wonderfully clever and 
beautiful wife, established friendly and diplomatic 
relations with Russia, for the first time in the country's 
history. 

But this flickering little flame of the nation's progress 
was soon extinguished, and for the next hundred years 
the Porte shamelessly sold the thrones of Moldavia and 
Wallachia to the highest bidder, the claimants to these 
precarious places being wealthy " Greeks of the Phanar 
who had been the lowest and most corrupt servants of 
the Porte." These Greeks, owing to their administrative 
ability, their astuteness, their gift of languages, French 
in particular, made themselves indispensable to the 
Porte. They amassed great riches and lived in the midst 
of luxury. In 1666 Paniotachus Nikussis was appointed 
Interpreter to the Divan. From this time until 1821 
this office was continually held by the Greeks as a family 
privilege. 

Competition was keen among these ambitious Phana- 
riots — called so because of the proximity of their district 
to the great Phanar or lighthouse — and they enriched 



58 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 

themselves, repaying the vast sums of money they had 
spent in bribing the Porte, by extortionate taxation and 
levies on the unhappy country Roumania. The wily 
Turk, on the other hand, found this so sure a means of 
gratifying his inordinate cupidity, that the rulers were 
perpetually changing, and in the short space of 105 years 
no less than 70 Hospodars occupied the thrones of 
Wallachia and Moldavia ! 

As soon as one Governor or Hospodar retired another 
arrived with a fresh swarm of greedy retainers eager to 
squeeze the unhappy people. One of the Court physicians 
early in the present century describes the lives of these 
rulers and their Court as of Asiatic luxury, incompetence 
and extortion. They out-turked the Turk in their 
rapacity and ingenious devices for despoiling and taxing 
the wretched peasantry. Their lives were spent in an 
orgy of pleasure and ease. The noble Hospodar was 
almost too noble for the slightest exertion. Their bread 
and food were cut up for them. Some of them were 
indeed so indolent that they never walked but were 
carried by slaves and lifted from their bed to chair. 
Their siesta had to be ensured by the complete stoppage 
of all traffic or business in the city ; no voice was heard, 
no bells might sound ! 

The consorts of the Hospodars vied with their lords in 
extravagance and display. The dresses of one of these 
ladies cost £2300, a tremendous sum in those days. So 
jealous were they of their rivals, that when one of these 
amiable Princesses found a lady at Court dressing better 
than herself, she would persuade her husband to banish 
the sumptuously attired beauty until, her own wardrobe 
replenished and resplendent, she could invite her disgraced 



BIRTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF A NATION 59 



rival to appear again and discomfit and spite her by a 
display of her own radiant apparel ! I This extravagance 
and ostentation naturally spread to the Roumanian 
nobles, who beggared themselves and ground down the 
peasantry in their desire to make a show. Divorce spread 
rapidly, and marriages were contracted for financial 
reasons, with resulting infidelity. 

Some of these Phanariot rulers, however, were not all 
bad ; there were indeed one or two who were good rulers, 
who founded charitable institutions, built fine buildings, 
and tried to check the extravagance of the feudal land- 
lords, " sleeping dogs," as the peasants called them ; but 
their reigns were short, their appearances few and far 
between. For the most part the princes and nobles were 
corrupt, and the peasantry and people in a deplorable 
condition. 

It was during these dark days of the country's birth 
that Turkey transferred the fair province of Bukovina 
to the Austrians in 1777 ; and later, in 1812, Bessarabia, 
the most northerly portion of Moldavia, was given to 
Russia, notwithstanding the vigorous remonstrances of 
the Phanariot ruler Gregory Ghika, Prince of Moldavia, 
who took an heroic stand against the monstrous injustice 
and robbery, but was assassinated in consequence, fall- 
ing to the yataghans of the Turkish emissaries. 

The name Bessarabia is derived from the Bassarab 
dynasty who in the thirteenth century founded the first 
Wallachian principality. It has been connected with 
Roumania for centuries. In Northern Bessarabia the 
population is overwhelmingly Roumanian by race and 
speech, but in the southern corner, called Bugeacul — 
from the Turkish word bujak, " an out-of-the-way 



6o ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 



corner/' German colonists were permitted by the Czars 
to swarm into the country, and a medley of races, Bulgars 
and Russian refugees, has resulted. 

Russia's theft " of Bessarabia poisoned good relations 
between the countries for many years and left an in- 
delible mark on the mind of the people, and the repressive 
administration of the province only accentuates the 
bitter feeling. 

Pitiful scenes were enacted on the shores of the 
" accursed river Pruth," a name that clings to it to this 
day. This river was now the barrier dividing the well- 
loved land ; separating homes and kinsmen on one side 
from the other, and leaving a wound as deep as the 
annexation of Alsace and Lorraine from France on the 
heart of the nation. 
I In 1822 the demand of Roumania for rulers of her own 
race was at last granted by the Porte ; the Phanariot 
rule came to an end and the rule of native boyars or 
Princes began. But the country was in a deplorable 
state, and but little improvement was made, for the 
nobles and Princes were constantly intriguing against 
each other, and any ruler with popular principles was 
denounced as a traitor to his caste. 



I Desperately the country turned her eyes to Russia for 
I help, but the great White Czar dreamed of conquest, not 
aid. Roumania soon realized that no help could be 
looked for from them, and that a " Muscovite Liberator 
might be as harsh as a Greek Governor." It is from this 
time that one can date the rise of a strong anti-Russian 
policy, and the next fifty years were continually spent in 
endeavouring to maintain Roumania's independence 



against the stern 




backed by 



BIRTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF A NATION 61 



the Convention of Akermann, had been permitted by the 
Sultan to become the " predominant partner " over the 
Principalities. Extreme oligarchical principles were the 
feature of the Russian domination. The people had no 
rights, the nobles no duties, i 

|~ Roumania, lying between Russia, Austria and Turkey, 
[was ever a pawn in their envious designs ; and was 
looked upon by each as a buffer acquisition, or as a hostage 
|o bargain with. It is astonishing that the national 
/spirit was not completely extinguished, and one can only 
attribute the fact to the inherently hopeful and vigorous 
^ Latin temperament of her people. 

The advent of the French Revolution was the first 
strong light that pierced through the darkness, and 
encouraged the oppressed people to hope that deliverance 
was near. The indomitable national spirit, notwith- 
standing every repressive influence, had been slowly 
developing. Their ancient history, which showed an 
incessant struggle to maintain their national ideals, lan- 
guage and racial affinity during centuries of oppression, 
was a matter of just pride with this suffering people. 
Contact with their Latin sister France was eagerly wel- 
comed, cultured ideas and aims were quickly imbibed 
through this Western friendship, which strengthened their 
spirit amazingly, an influence which has never ceased. 

The Serbs were the first to regain their liberty ; and 
not long afterwards Roumania was successful in casting 
out the Phanariot regime. In 1856, the Treaty of Paris 
accorded her the restitution of the Delta of the Danube, 
taken from her by Russia in 18 12. France supported 
Roumania in her great desire to unite the two principali- 
ties under one rule. In 1858 the union of the two princi- 



62 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 



palities, the election of a foreign Prince, hereditary suc- 
cession, and a monarchical government were at last 
granted. 

Thus, after six centuries of incredible intrigue and 
bloodshed, the brave tempest -ridden little country 
secured her freedom, and Roumania as a nation was 
born. 

Alexander Cuza, the first Prince elected, had a difficult 
role to fulfil, having to submit to a double investiture of 
the two principalities, and the perplexity of maintaining 
two separate ministries. In 1861, however, this was 
simplified by the Porte granting the union of the two 
Assemblies ; and on December 23rd of that year, the 
Prince in a proclamation to his people was able to an- 
nounce that " The Roumanian nation is founded." 

During the eight years of his reign many reforms were 
accomplished ; the most noteworthy being the founda- 
tion of the two Roumanian Universities, one at Bucharest 
and one at Jassy ; the severance of the Church from the 
corrupt Greek Patriarchate ; the sequestration of the 
monasteries, their lands and treasures ; and finally the 
emancipation of the peasantry, the granting to them of 
land, and their release from some of the most onerous of 
their feudal obligations. 

By the promulgation of this law freehold property in 
lots varying from seven to fifteen acres was conferred on 
each peasant according to the number of oxen he pos- 
sessed. The man with two oxen got ten acres, of four 
oxen, twelve to fifteen acres. As a result of this most of 
the peasants have now their little holdings, but the small- 
ness of them renders any scientific farming difficult ex- 
cepting by co-operation, and many of the peasants can 



BIRTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF A NATION 63 



live only by working for the proprietors of the big 
estates, often get into difficulties and fall into the hands 
of the Jews. Thus the position is not very satisfactory. 

Notwithstanding the extreme irregularities of his 
private life and his despotic disregard of constitutional 
forms, Cuza stands out as a Prince beloved — and even 
adored by the peasants — whose hard lot he had done so 
much to ameliorate. 

His devotion to and too hasty adoption of French 
ideals and institutions proved premature and unwise in a 
country not yet prepared for such innovations. He had 
also the misfortune to arouse the antagonism of the great 
families by his suspension of the freedom of the Press — 
then only in the early stages of its existence — and by the 
excesses of his private life. The general dissatisfaction 
culminated in February, 1866, when he was forced to 
abdicate and disappeared from the country. 

* * * * 

The Count of Flanders, father of the present heroic 
King of the Belgians, was offered the throne but declined 
it ; and Prince Charles of Hohenzollern, a connection of 
the Prussian Kaiser, was appointed. " Accept it," 
advised Bismarck, " it will at any rate be an agreeable 
souvenir for your old age." His election so displeased 
Austria that, disguised and travelling second class in 
order to avoid attention — with a small suite of two who 
travelled first class — and armed with a passport describing 
him as one Charles Hettinger, he travelled through 
Austrian territory to his new country. He alighted at 
Turnu Severin, the frontier of his adopted land, on May 8th, 
1866, at the very spot the great Trajan had entered in 
a.d. 106. 



64 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 



The task Prince Charles had undertaken was one of 
magnitude. The country had been bled white by long 
centuries of oppression, " corruption and immorality in 
high quarters, misery and subjection in the lower ; its 
finance in an appalling muddle, the army in a deplorable 
state of administrative disorder." 

The choice of their ruler, however, proved fortunate, 
and the Prince showed himself fully capable of attacking 
the urgent problems that faced him and building up the 
Roumanian nation. The natural vigour and endurance 
of this much-tried race proved them worthy of every 
effort ; and endowed as they were with great advantages 
in mind and character, the people quickly responded to 
efforts on their behalf. 

The heart of the people was aroused ; and running 
strongly through their blood was the pride of race that 
had so long escaped annihilation. They believed that the 
genius which had ever confronted despair with courage, 
and faith in the country's ultimate destiny, would enable 
them to build up a worthy future. Prince Carol did not 
disappoint their expectations. Shrewd and canny, he 
guided his country rather than drove it. 

The country was equally fortunate in the selection of 
the Queen, for in 1869 Prince Carol married the gifted 
Princess Elizabeth of Wied, so well known to the whole 
world as Carmen Sylva. She proved a wonderful consort 
and helper to the Prince in the development of her 
adopted country. 

A woman of much beauty of mind and character, she 
threw herself heart and soul into promoting the welfare 
of her people, and her devotion to the King provided an 
unexampled picture of domestic happiness not often seen 



BIRTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF A NATION 65 



in royal unions. Her simple innocent nature, the deep 
interest and sympathy she extended to the poor and the 
suffering, and her devoted nursing of the wounded during 
the Russo-Roumanian-Turkish War, endeared her much 
to the people. Indeed, the name they gave her, Mama 
Regina — Mother Queen — proves the deep affection felt 
for her by all classes. Even had she not been born in the 
purple, her literary and poetical attainments would have 
ranked high, and she was without question one of the 
outstanding personalities of her time. She published 
over fifty volumes, through all of which runs the spirit 
of sincerity, sentiment and the appreciation of beauty 
which was so characteristic of her poetical temperament. 

Her Pensees d'une Reine, decorated by the Academie 
Francaise, shows a deep knowledge of life, a delicate wit 
and satire, an understanding of humanity, love, happi- 
ness and duty quite exceptional. The Pensees are so 
well known that it is only necessary to mention a few of 
them. 

" A woman is stoned for an action a perfect gentleman 
can do with impunity." 

" The faults of your husband or your wife are in- 
supportable only as long as you insist on correcting them ; 
you should put up with them as you do the smell of your 
dog, because you like him." 

<f Piety is the nostalgia of a lost paradise." 

Among her plays the best known is Mesturel Manole, 
which was performed in Vienna before the Emperor. 
The story is such a touching one, and though dating 
from the fifteenth century, is so characteristic of the 
belief held to this day by the Roumanians of the rural 
districts, that it is worth relating. 



66 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 



During the building of the great cathedral at Curtea 
d'Arges, near the Carpathians, where the Royal family 
are buried, the master builder Manole omitted to secure 
its stability by burying a live human being within its 
walls, in consequence of which the walls were always 
crumbling. Finally it was decided to revert to the 
ancient practice and immure the first person who passed 

by. 

It happened that the lovely young wife of Manole, 
bringing him food and wine, passed that way, with the 
result that the workmen seized her and built her within 
the walls. Her husband was away on business, and to 
his tragic despair arrived too late to save her. Her terri- 
fied screams and sobbing gasps as she slowly suffocated 
are said to be heard sometimes proceeding from the old 
walls. Even to this day this ancient custom is followed 
in part, and a builder will catch the shadow of a passer-by 
on a length of wood which he will enclose in the wall of 
the house he is building. 

In Queen Elizabeth, Roumania possessed an influence 
which fostered and encouraged the cause of national art 
and letters with the full force of her enthusiastic nature 
and keenly artistic mind. She delighted to call herself 
the friend of the great poet Alexandri, he who collected 
the priceless treasures of folk-lore, ballads and legends 
composed by the people in the past and transmitted 
orally to their descendants through generations, and 
which have been delightfully translated into French. 

Her life was greatly saddened by the death at the age 
four years of their only child, the lovely little Princess 1 
Marie, " l'enfant du soleil," as the devoted parents called 
her. As no other children blessed their union Prince 



BIRTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF A NATION 67 

Carol's nephew, Prince Ferdinand of Hohenzollern, was 
invited to the country as heir presumptive ; and in 
/1893 he married Princess Marie, eldest daughter of the 
/ Duke of Edinburgh, granddaughter of Queen Victoria 
and the Czar Alexander I of Russia. 

* * * * 

The early years of Prince Carol's reign were devoted 
to the advancement of the country in many directions. 
Slowly, backed by the steadfast confidence of the people 
in their future, reforms were accomplished and progress 
made such as could not have been possible had he not 
found the moment ripe, and the people determined to 
support him, and sacrifice themselves for the advance- 
ment and benefit of their country. 

His chief efforts were directed towards the reorganiza- 
tion and development of the Army, for which his early 
training in a crack Prussian regiment had qualified him. 
When he came to Roumania in i860 the Army consisted 
chiefly of raw levies armed for the most part with old 
rifles, sabres or pikes, lacking in all kinds of equipment. 
But his training under the great Moltke had well fitted 
the Prince for the organization necessary. 

The Roumanian Army is principally a peasant one and 
resembles in quality the Bulgarian and Serbian. Military 
service is obligatory. Every male able to carry arms 
must be incorporated from the age of twenty into one or 
another branch of the service. Substitution is not per- 
mitted, only the clergy and the infirm are exempt, and 
in time of peace when an only son supports his family. 

The army is divided into two elements : (1) the Active 
Army and the Reserve ; (2) the Territorial Army. Every 
soldier serves seven years in the Active Army and twelve 



68 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 



years in the Reserve. The duration of actual active 
service with the colours is two years for infantry, three 
years for artillery, cavalry and engineers, four years for 
the navy. The Active Army is divided into two parts — 
the Permanent and the Territorial. The number needed 
for each is decided every year by the Senate, and lots are 
drawn which decide the entry into one or the other ; the 
small numbers into the Territorial. The soldiers of the 
Permanent Army are in garrison for two or three years. 
The duration of service in the Territorial, where the men 
enter at forty years old, lasts six years. The Active 
Territorial Cavalry, which is a kind of peasant yeomanry, 
each man furnishing his own horse, implies an active 
service reduced to training periods and manoeuvres — 
somewhat on the Swiss model — but lasting four years 
instead of three. (The details of organization of the 
army just before the war with figures supplied officially 
by the Roumanian authorities are found in the Almanack 
de Gotha.) 1 

This arrangement suits better an agricultural country 
like Roumania ; it renders the upkeep of an army less 
costly, and does not take from the soil so many important 
workers. 

Though the Territorials do not have so long a period 
of military instruction as those of the Active Army they 
are none the less extraordinarily good soldiers, and in the 
war of 1877, when they composed two-thirds of the 
infantry, fought with such tenacity and dash against the 
Turks under Osman Pasha on the bloody field of Plevna 

1 The organization in the present war and specially the actual 
figures and details on the reorganized Roumanian Army which won 
immortal fame at the battle of Marasesti can, for obvious reasons, not 
be given now. 



BIRTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF A NATION 69 



that they added a splendid page to Roumanian military 
history. 

Russia repaid Roumanians valuable military assistance 
with base ingratitude. Bessarabia, the most fertile por- 
tion of her Moldavian territory — which had been reunited 
to her after the Crimean War — was arbitrarily annexed 
by the Czar, and the only compensation Roumania got 
for her help consisted of the barren marsh lands of the 
Dobrudja — south of the Danube Delta. This territory 
possessed no military frontier and contained a mixed 
population of Turks, Bulgars and Roumanians. Even 
the town of Silistria, in the ceded territory, was denied 
her ; and the Powers, blind to the injustice of this treat- 
ment, did not move in the matter. Small wonder that 
the loss of Bessarabia — Roumania's from time imme- 
morial — should rankle in the nation's heart and render 
her attitude to Russia somewhat distrustful. 

The agrarian position was in an exceedingly unsatis- 
factory condition when Prince Carol came to the throne. 
The boyars or nobles held all the land, the peasants had 
no land rights, and their days were mostly spent in toil 
for their masters. The Tchnivnick, or petty official so 
well known in Russia, was as much of a curse here as in 
the Empire of the Czar. One of the Prince's first acts 
was to reduce the power and tyranny of these officials by 
providing the peasants with small holdings. This 
naturally met with much opposition from the nobles ; 
but nevertheless the act was passed. 

The position of the simple hard-working Roumanian 
peasant is not nearly so favourable as that of his fellows 
in Serbia and Bulgaria, and more than one agrarian 
revolt has broken out. Indeed in 1907 the capital was in 



;o ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 

imminent danger of falling into the hands of the in- 
furiated peasantry, who pillaged, burnt and destroyed 
all they could lay hands on. Their greatest hatred was 
directed against the Jewish middlemen, who by their un- 
principled tyranny provoked the full force of the peasants' 
wrath. Since then various reforms have been introduced 
— village banks, cheap credit, with a healthier, simpler 
system of contracts and land administration. The con- 
ditions have undoubtedly greatly improved, but much 
still remains to be done for the finest asset of Roumania's 
strength and progress, her peasantry. 

With regard to its commercial, industrial and agri- 
cultural development, the country has made gigantic 
strides. Agriculture is one of the great industries of the 
country, three-quarters of the country being under 
cultivation, while the production of maize nearly equals 
that of America. Indeed, she can be considered as stand- 
ing third among the great grain-producing countries of 
the world, coming after the United States and Russia. 
At Braila and Galatz, thriving towns on the mouth of 
the Danube, with populations of 70,000 and 80,000, the 
Government has built immense warehouses and elevators 
for the export of the precious cereal. 

The soil is very rich, being the celebrated " black 
earth," and the country is well watered ; beet, sugar and 
tobacco are easily grown. There are many vineyards, 
and Roumania ranks fifth amongst the wine-growing 
countries, producing excellent wines of a far better 
flavour than the sour mixture found in Serbia and Bul- 
garia . 

The country possesses great natural resources and the 
spirit of progress is there. It only awaits help and aid, 



BIRTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF A NATION 71 

when it will undoubtedly develop extensively, for the 
country, especially in the Carpathians, is rich in silver, 
iron, copper, quicksilver, lead, tin, arsenic, cobalt, etc. 
Relations between Roumania and Britain have hitherto 
been slight, owing largely to ignorance and indifference. 
Unfortunately though France dominates the social and 
intellectual world the Germans and Austrians hold the 
economic and have enriched themselves accordingly. 
For fourteen millions of French exports Germany sends 
a hundred millions. Only thirty years ago France ex- 
ported thirty-five millions of articles to five of German. 
But the Boche is no favourite, and Roumania would 
welcome closer economic and social relations with 
England. 

Salt is found in abundance and the mines at Okna are 
worked by the convicts, who receive a small wage. Great 
wealth exists in the vast forests of timber — seven million 
acres of which are carefully preserved — comprising oak, 
beech, walnut, pine, maple, which when felled are easily 
drifted down the Danube to the various countries, or to 
the Black Sea for export. 

With the exception of grain, petroleum is perhaps the 
richest of Roumanian products, over two million tons a 
year being the output, and over twenty millions of foreign 
money is invested in the wells. The petroleum is superior 
to that of the Caucasus ; and at Kustendy, on the Black 
Sea, large tanks and refineries have been erected whence 
it can be shipped all over the world. 

Prince Carol's instinct for financial transactions, and a 
certain thrifty disposition inherited from his Teutonic 
and French forbears — his mother was a connection of the 
House of Bonaparte— have proved of service in guiding 



i 



72 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 

the wise development of the country's resources. Indeed, 
so ably were they conducted that in 1906 the Budget 
reached the highest figure ever recorded in Roumanian 
finance. 

Roumania is unlike the countries that surround her in 
that she possesses a regular system of party government, 
a constitutional monarchy resembling in character that 
of Great Britain more closely than any other European 
state. 

The Legislature is composed of a Parliament of two 
Houses. The Senate consists of 120 members elected 
for eight years, including the bishops and university 
representatives. The Chamber of Deputies has 183 
members elected for four years. They must not be under 
twenty-five years of age, receive twenty francs a day for 
actual attendance and free travel on the railways. There 
are two political parties : the Liberals, whose chief, 
Bratiano, son of the well-known statesman who en- 
couraged King Carol in his decision to fight with Russia 
against Turkey in 1877, was Prime Minister for twelve 
years. He is a man of intelligence and agreeable person- 
ality, and possesses the confidence of both King Carol 
and his successor. 

The leader of the opposition and head of the Liberal- 
Conservative party is the brilliant and keenly pro-ally 
statesman Take Jonescu, the true leader of the Roumanian 
Irredentist party. His shrewd intellect, wide vision, and 
great oratorical powers have gained him a great follow- 
ing ; and his reputation in Western Europe stands 
deservedly very high. 

The last quarter of the nineteenth century witnessed a 
great leap forward of the nation's prosperity. Indeed, 



BIRTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF A NATION 73 



so marked was the country's progress, so great the vigour 
and mental elan of the people, able at last to develop on 
free lines, so triumphant the success of the Roumanian 
armies who went to the relief of the Russians in the 
Russo-Turco War in 1877, that the just culmination of 
the nation's efforts was reached in 1881, when Prince 
Carol was proclaimed a King. He was crowned with an 
iron crown, made from one of the cannon captured at 
Plevna ; and the principality finally emerged among the 
Powers a recognized kingdom. 

When the Balkan War of 1913 broke out Serbia, 
Bulgaria and Greece allied themselves together to cast 
out the hated tyrant, the Turk, from Europe. Roumania 
maintained an attitude of neutrality ; but when Bulgaria 
turned traitor to her Allies in true Bulgarian spirit and 
attacked them, Roumania intervened in order to main- 
tain the right of small nations to exist. 

In 1914 King Carol died. His reign, which lasted forty- 
eight years, w T as undoubtedly the turning-point in Rou- 
manian history, for the country was transformed from a 
corrupt and oppressed vassal of the Turks, living in a 
state of anarchy and chaos, into the first of the Balkan 
Powers, and the seventh amongst the independent states 
of Europe. She stands seventh in the way of population, 
her territory exceeds in size that of Portugal, Switzerland, 
Belgium, Denmark or Holland as well as any of the other 
Balkan states. Her army takes rank immediately after 
those of the six great Powers, and so greatly has her 
trade increased that it very nearly equals the combined 
amount of Serbia, Montenegro, Bulgaria and Greece. 

One cannot, however, overlook the fact that owing to 
his origin King Carol made the political miscalculation 



74 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 

with regard to his people of believing that their future 
development lay along Teutonic lines. German capital 
largely financed the country's economic progress, and 
implicit faith in the star of Germany's power rendered 
him blind to the organization of strategical railways, 
factories for army equipment and arsenals, and finally 
led him to conclude a secret treaty with the Central 
Powers without the consent of his people. 



CHAPTER IV 



THE HEART OF ROUMANIA 

LITTLE has been known of Roumania by the 
general public, yet as far back as the fifteenth 
j century English travellers penetrated into this 
beautiful land of wild romantic scenery. Beau- 
mont and Fletcher in one of their plays mention the 
palace of the King of Moldavia — the northern portion of 
old Roumania — whose daughter Pomponia greets her 
father's guest in these words : 

" Welcome, Sir Knight, unto my father's court. 
King of Moldavia ; unto me Pomponia, his daughter dear." 

William Lithgow, an ancient traveller, describes in his 
quaint Totale discourse of the Rare Adventures in 1656 
that he found in Moldavia and Transylvania " a friendlie 
people, the very vulgars speaking frequent Latine." 

Perhaps the most interesting of these early records is 
the description of one William Harebone, a merchant 
sent by our shrewd, far-seeing, good Queen Bess as an 
agent to open up commercial enterprise between Turkey 
and the adjacent states, and the mention of " the earliest 
treaty signed between England and Roumania " in 1582. 
He relates how " I departed from Constantinople with 
30 persons of my suit and family the 3 of August. Pass- 
ing through the countries of Thraciao now called Rou- 
mania, the Great Valachia and Moldavia where arriving 
the 5 of September I was according to the Grand Signior 

75 



76 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 



his commandement, very courteously interteined by 
Peter, his positive prince, a Greeke by profession with 
whom was concluded that her Maiesties subjects there 
trafiguing should pay but three ; upon the hundreth 
which as well as his owne subjects as all other nations 
answere ; whose letters to her Maiestie be extant : 
whence I proceeded into Poland, where the high chancelor 
sent for me the 27 of the same moneth." 1 

One admires the spirit of this fine old English burgher 
travelling with his "family'' in those troublous far-off 
times, through " savage " Eastern Europe. It is a 
courageous spirit inherent in the race. 

* * * * 

For the sympathetic traveller, Roumania captivates 
with an irresistible attraction. The clear beauty of the 
sky, the limpidity of the atmosphere, the fertile plains, 
the wooded hills sheltering the great white monasteries 
with their shining cupolas hold a peculiar fascination 
for those who can appreciate the gentle poetic charm of 
the land. 

From the picturesque point of view the country 
presents beauties as varied as any to be found in the 
Pyrenees, the Apennines and in many parts of Switzer- 
land. The austerity of the great peaks, the beauty of 
the forest-covered ranges, the sombre gorges, the rich 
valleys, wide plains of waving grain, the strange melan- 
choly of the lonely plateaux and the majestic sweep of 
the great Danube have as yet drawn few travellers and 
the world in general hardly knows of the beauties to be 
found here. 

The long line of the Danube which rises far away in 

1 M. Beza, English Historical Review, No. 126, April, 1917. 




By permission of the Times. 



THE HEART OF ROUMANIA 77 

the Black Forest totals in its entire length 3000 kilo- 
metres. As it approaches Balkan lands it flows through 
the Iron Gates, called thus by the Turks, not because of 
any towering heights, for the hills have gradually de- 
scended, but from the ragged rocks lying submerged in 
the waterway. From here the north-western bank is 
Serbian for fifty miles, while the southern one to the 
Black Sea is Bulgarian — a distance of 290 miles. 

The river enters Roumanian territory by Verciorova 
or Kazan, the Cauldron, and debouches by three great 
water-ways, the Kilia, the Sulina and the St. George, into 
the Black Sea. At Verciorova it resembles a great lake, 
and towering above it are precipitous hills varying from 
1000 to 2000 feet high, and like most of the mountains in 
Roumania covered with forests of birch and pine. At 
this spot the channel is not more than about 120 yards 
wide and the depth about thirty fathoms, but as it flows 
eastwards it widens and gains in depth also. There are 
about three hundred islands between Verciorova and 
the Black Sea, some are of sand and reeds, others have 
good pasturage for flocks and are covered with willows. 
Few towns are passed, here and there are thatched 
villages with landing-stages for the steamers that ply up 
and down, but as the mighty waterway rolls east the 
greater part of the Roumanian shore is a desolate fen 
country varied here and there by low hills and long 
lagoons. 

/ The Danube is to the country what the Nile is to Egypt, J 
Ithe stream of life, a gift precious and sustaining. It is 
fed from the moment it passes Verciorova almost entirely 
by Roumanian streams. On the Bulgarian side only the 
Isker and the Yantra flow into it, and only one Serbian 



78 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TODAY 

river the Timok. The rains of autumn, the melting snows 
in spring swell the streams that feed the great waterway 
as it rolls broadly to the sea. It is therefore only just 
and legitimate that the Delta — which is nothing less than 
Roumanian soil torn from the land by the fret of the 
river — should belong to Roumania. 

* * * * 

From the bird's-eye point of view Roumania can be 
likened to a great amphitheatre, the highest points of 
this semicircle being the Carpathian ranges, which 
descend gradually by the lower hills and so to the interior 
of the country, the great plains. Thus we have three 
zones, alpine, forest and steppe. In the alpine regions of 
the Carpathians the eastern sides are rent in gorge-like 
seams, whose violently contorted strata form deep trans- 
verse valleys inclining laterally towards the south-east. 
The peaks, many of them 8000 to 10,000 feet high, are 
bare and jagged with shoulder coverings of moss and 
lichen ; their lower slopes rest in deep forests of pine, 
birch and larch, while far below in the gorges tumble and 
plunge and roar the noisy mountain streams. 

Up in these lonely passes are many deep caves, now the 
lairs of the wolf and bear, but in times long gone, the 
sanctuaries to which the peasants fled when their lands 
were devastated by the ferocious Tartars, Turks and Huns. 
Near the old Saxon colony of Rosenau stands in inacces- 
sible seclusion the Peasants' Stronghold, grimly fortified 
by nature to protect her sons against the conqueror of 
the lower lands ; close by is another natural fortress, the 
Knight's Castle with its view of pinnacled crags and peaks 
and the wide plain beyond. 

Amongst the wild pathless mountains where foot- 



THE HEART OF ROUMANIA 



79 



tracks are known only by the shepherds, where the eagle 
soars and screams, and the chamois bounds and leaps, 
the peaks have been invested by the peasants since 
ancient times as sacred to the gods and analogous with 
the human form. 

Up their slopes go the processional pines, dark, motion- 
less, mysterious. Deep primeval forests, they seem to 
hold in silent keeping the memories of the heroic 
struggles of the Roumanians throughout the centuries ; 
the long fight to maintain the sacred traditions of their 
race, the sonorous language of their forefathers and their 
belief in Divine justice and faith in their destiny. 

Far below the rugged rocks, gleams a quiet mountain 
lake reflecting the opal and gold of the sky athwart the 
clear-cut shadow of the peaks, and in between the maze 
of heights are deep ravines with the crying of innumer- 
able torrents breaking the solemn stillness as they hurtle 
from rock to rock to the purple depths below. 

Look eastward and the setting sun will catch with a 
quiver of gold the cupolas of the great monastery and 
cathedral of Curtea de Arges, built by Neagoe Bassarab 
and his wife Despina of Serbia in 15 18. For centuries 
Moldavia and Wallachia had been nothing more than 
great roads over which the barbarian hosts had poured 
on their way from the East westwards, and many of the 
fine old monasteries and churches at Jassy, Horez, 
Padule, Cozia, built by the Voivodes or princes, had 
been pillaged or partially destroyed by the Turks and 
others. 

The fifteenth and sixteenth centuries were a period of 
considerable activity in what is now called Roumania, 
and Bassarab and his consort were determined that 



So ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 



Curtea de Arges should excel in beauty all that had gone 
before. It is one of the most imposing churches in 
Europe and a famous specimen of Byzantine art, a ming- 
ling of the Arab and the Roman, eminently character- 
istic of the Roumanian art of the fifteenth century, and 
in the days of its early glory must have been very mag- 
nificent. The cathedral was restored by King Carol in 
1866 and is very rich in beauty of decoration, of frescoes, 
mosaics, glorious bronzes and gleaming marble, and 
stands like a " fragment of the sun " as the people call it, 
in charming country surroundings facing the long range 
of mountains. It has withstood fire, earthquakes and 
the violence and fury of barbarian invasions. In the 
interior are the tombs of the founder, his successors, and 
here also is the Royal mausoleum of the present dynasty. 

To the north and south of Azuga under the shadow of 
Mont Sinaia among magnificent forests and flower-strewn 
valleys lies Sinaia, one of the beauty spots of Europe, 
with its old Greek Orthodox monaster} 7 , built by Michael 
Cantacuzene in the fifteenth century. It is the summer 
resort of the Roumanian beau monde, and here on its 
wooded heights stands the fine palace of the King, Castle 
Peles, full of treasures of art both Oriental and European. 
The Germans were so eager to possess this rich booty that 
they refrained from bombarding it at the beginning of 
the war. 

The mountain tops sink one by one to lower levels till 
they reach the second zone, the " district of vines " as it 
is called, the lush, fertile undulating land where fruits 
and flowers grow so abundantly. Far away to the east 
may be caught a glimpse of the distant gilded domes of 
the stately Byzantine monastery and cathedral at 



THE HEART OF ROUMANIA 81 



Camulung, the ancient city and residence in olden 
times of Rudolph the Black, founder of the Bassarab 
dynasty. 

Beyond this the ground slopes to the vast plains — the 
famous Russian " black earth " which carries such rich 
yields of wheat and maize within its wide bosom. 

As they approach the great waterway of the Danube 
they merge into a monotonous level steppe of scant 
grasses, weeds and stunted shrubs intersected with reed 
beds and farther east long lagoons. 

These great plains stretching to the far horizon remind 
one of the prairies of Mexico and Canada, and reflect all 
the soft shades of rose, mist grey, brown, green and 
burnished gold. The sun blazes benevolently, ripening 
royally the vast expanse of grain and maize. Water is 
rare, and hardly a tree can stand the glacial winter blasts 
that blow from the Siberian steppes, or the torrid heat 
of summer. Flat as a billiard table the boundless plain 
stretches away and away, broken only by the little 
hamlets, the colour of the soil itself, and the great up- 
standing arms of the wells that point upwards like an 
exclamation to the sky. 

* * * * 

South of the Danube lies the wild bare Dobrudja, a 
tongue of the Balkan plateau. This debatable land, the 
cradle of many righting races since remote times, sprang 
into the public eye at the end of the Balkan War, when, 
at the treaty of Bucharest, Roumania acquired an addi- 
tional strip of it at the expense of Bulgaria in order to 
balance her strategical frontier. It is an ancient high 
road, unceasingly worn by the nations who swarmed and 
fought for centuries to force their way from the bleak 

G 



82 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 



steppes and mountains of the north, towards the sunny 
promise of the /Egean Seas. 

Towards the centre, the higher hilly tableland lies like 
a saddle between the Balkans and Southern Russia, and 
Baba Dagh (old mother), the highest of these hill ranges 
(1700 feet), looms towards the broad Danube lying to the 
north. The last spurs of this range lie close to Tulcea 
and Braila, where a few crossings can be made over the 
great river. These are the historic gates through which 
the Northern hordes passed in ancient times, ravaging 
and destroying, and against whom Trajan's mighty 
forces were sent to stem that barbaric invasion that aimed 
at the looting of the Eastern provinces of the Roman 
Empire. Along this rude grey region, the great Emperor 
constructed the historic Trajan's Wall, parts of which 
are still in existence, with its triple consecutive barriers 
of defence, its deep entrenchments, measuring from ten 
to twenty feet wide, and fortified camps placed at 
interva s. 

Over the barren steppes of the Dobrudja, where hardly 
a tree exists or running water is to be found, the Goths 
and Slavs descended on the Byzantine Empire some 
hundreds of years ago. Here also the Tartars swarmed 
on their way to loot the wonders and riches of Constanti- 
nople. Through the Danubian marshes and over this 
desolate arid land of sand and limestone, Russia marched 
in 1812 to light against the infidel for the Greek Orthodox 
Church and the liberation of her Slav sister Bulgaria. 

Can history show a more despicable instance of a 
nation's perfidy ! the deep ingrained treachery and in- 
gratitude of the Bulgar nature ! 

The eagerly grasped thirty pieces of German silver 



THE HEART OF ROUMANIA 83 



that bought her honour — her ruler the venal tool of his 

Teutonic master — the snarling fury with which she cast 

aside the Russian hand that brought her her freedom ! 

Could eyes of stone hurl glances— could Hps of stone form 

speech, what thunderbolts of condemnation would the 

great statue of the Czar Liberator standing in the heart 

of Sofia — the shameless city — hurl forth at the traitors to 

the Slav race ! 

* * * * 

Here in this wild no man's land, useful only as a barrier 
between the hostile nations, are collected the flotsam and 
jetsam of neighbouring tribes, the debris of many nations, 
fugitives persecuted or revolutionary, they seek in its 
barren bleakness the sanctuary denied them in their own 
country. 

In the little settlements of low mud huts dwell Jews, 
Armenians, Turks. " They are all the driftwood of the 
storms of history." The Tartars in the Dobrudja are 
fragments of the Golden Horde which withdrew from 
Southern Russia when the country passed under Chris- 
tian domination. Among the Little Russians, descendants 
can be found of Cossack rebels, of the followers of Nekras- 
soff, and of the even more famous Mazepa ; among the 
Great Russians prevail all kinds of quaint religious 
sects, who in the days of persecution had abandoned 
their homes — Dukhobors and Old Believers, Molokans 
and Bezpapovtsi — " having no priests." The latter a 
curious sect who slay their priests in order to have an 
intermediary to plead for them when they enter paradise. 

Of this lone land of many scattered races it has been 
written, " On forlorn shores I have discovered humble 
hamlets where Turks dwell in solitary aloofness. Near 



8 4 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 

the broad Danube I have strayed amongst tiny boroughs 
inhabited by Russian fisher-folk, whose type is so 
different from that of the Roumanian peasant. At first 
sight one recognizes their nationality — tall, fair-bearded 
giants, with blue eyes, their red shirts visible from a 
great way off. It is especially in the Dobrudja that these 
different nationalities jostle together. Besides Rouma- 
nians, Bulgarians, Turks, Tartars, Russians, in places even 
Germans, live peacefully side by side." 1 But the Rouma- 
nian steadily gains ground on the other populations. 

The villages are lonely, poor, scanty of tree shelter, 
and often wind and sand swept. The houses and the 
huts of the poorer are built of wattle and thatch with 
queer hidden little courtyards, tiny gardens and the 
shrouded windows of the harem quarters of the Turks. 
The Mussulman women glide past us in their wide 
gathered-in trousers, with long coats or mantles drawn 
over their mouths ; the dim shapes in their garments of 
soft sun-stained old colours pass leisurely along close to 
the walls and down by the dusty whitewashed old 
mosque with its faded carpets and rows of old shoes 
lying in the sun. Far above the Muezzin is voicing his 
midday cry to prayer : 

" He turns around the parapet, 
Black-robed against the marble tower ; 
His singing gains or loses power 
In pacing round the minaret. 

A brother to the singing birds, 
He never knew restraining walls, 
But freely rises, freely falls 
The rhythm of the sacred words." 2 

* * * * 

1 My Country. H.M. the Queen of Roumania. 

2 The Hon. Mrs. Harold Nicolson. 




THE HEART OF ROUMANIA 85 



Northward, on the vast swamps and marshes of the 
delta an extraordinary and strangely interesting phase of 
life is found. In spring, between April and July, the 
whole land — a distance of about 1500 square miles — 
becomes a vast lake. Here and there are dotted little 
islands struggling to keep their heads above the waste of 
waters. In the summer the lake recedes and rich fields 
emerge gay with brilliant flowers and lush grasses, inter- 
sected by deep still pools and wandering streams. In 
many parts the land is below the level of the Black Sea, 
and therefore cannot be drained. Little is known about 
this region beyond that it is considered to be a vast 
inland lake. 

Dr. Antipa, the Director of the Museum of Natural 
History at Bucharest, tells us some interesting facts 
about this queer, semi-amphibious world where there is 
no firm footing for the sole of man, and only a few hardy 
adventurous fishermen brave the uncertainties of the 
aquatic life by building their slender huts of reeds on the 
extraordinary floating islands made of matted weeds 
called ftlaur. These grow together so thickly that they 
form mats nearly three feet thick. 

The whole delta abounds in animals who find here a 
safe refuge from the snare of man, and whose principal 
enemy is the sudden engulfing flood that rises from 
below, sweeping all before it. The wolves, boars, the 
foxes, wild oxen and thousands of swamp pigs all 
know how to swim, and their instinct teaches them 
the approach of this enemy. The mice and rats are 
the first to convey the warning, and the wild cats, and 
the hares, the only animals that can't swim, run for their 
lives to the tree tops. On the shallow floating islands of 



86 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 



plaur are magnificent low willow trees whose spreading 
branches form the arks that yearly carry thousands of 
animals in safety through the floods. 

One wonders how they live during these desperate 
da}/s ! gnawing the shoots, eating the bark, preying upon 
their weaker kind, but often dying of starvation and 
exhaustion. 

The whole delta is a wonderful fishing ground and 
well repays the hardy fisher who ventures there. It is 
said that during the season of 1907 the Danube rose 
twenty feet, and that more than thirteen million pounds 
of fish were caught in the delta. Rarely does the latter 
freeze sufficiently, even in the very severe winters pre- 
valent there, to allow any movement across. Indeed in 
this last severe and terrible winter of war, nature, in this 
region at least, turned a pitying ear to the stricken and 
staggering country and refused the foothold of ice that 
would have enabled the enemy to cross the delta and 
encircle Roumania. 

# * # * 

To many people the beauties of the mountains, forests 
lakes, and plains of different countries all bear more or 
less the same resemblance, though in differing degree. 
There are others, more sensitive perhaps, who sense the 
spirit of the people in the aspect of their land. Here in 
Roumania there is an indefinable something that marks 
it as distinct, a nobility mingled with a poetic simplicity 
and gentle melancholy, that is totally different from the 
harsher grandeur of Bulgaria, or the well advertised 
beauty of Switzerland, with its bourgeois materiality 
lying so close under the majestic peaks. 

Few travellers have trodden this land or disturbed 



THE HEART OF ROUMANIA 87 



the bond of occult sympathy existing between the 
Roumanian peasant and his soil. One who knew the 
country profoundly has said that : 

" It would seem as if the reflections of the sufferings 
and joys of the Roumanian people had coloured and 
shadowed the hills and plains, an echo of the trials and 
hopes of the race which has voiced its way through the 
woods and across the mountain peaks. The soil has im- 
pregnated the soul of the race with its perfume, while 
the race has stamped on nature the seal of originality 
of its soul. This originality clothes the landscape 
with a character of hidden poetry, gentle dreaming, 
and a tranquillity which makes the charm of this 
nature a very picturesque, richly varied and endearing 
one." 1 

Through the whole of Roumania there lingers still that 
deep close bond, a communion between the soil and the 
spirit of him who tills it, which is only found amongst 
those who have suffered, struggled and bled for their 
land. For them it is a voice that through all vicissitudes 
and trials speaks with a mute but unfailing understanding, 
giving them a consolation, a patience, a steadfastness, to 
support them in a life often hard and toilsome. Cen- 
turies of oppression, of wayward shifting rulers, have 
developed this instinctive love, deep devotion and trust 
in the eternal Mother who has ever been their hope, their 
life, their work. 

It is a profound and subtle link, and one that amongst 
the peasants of the mountains, valleys and steppes has 
tinged their existence with a paganism, a paganism in 
many ways beautiful, the belief in the great spirits of 
1 La terre et la race Roumaines, A. Sturdza. 



88 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 



nature that surround them, and of which their customs, 
folk-lore and ballads show such convincing proof. 

The nymphs of the pools and lake ; the dryads of the 
woods ; the mama padurii, the gentle guardian of children 
wandering in the forests ; the little elves that dance by 
night ; the silent watching deities of the mountain crests ; 
the bounteous water spirit — a good and powerful spirit, 
to be constantly propitiated in a land often threatened 
with drought ; the madna zana, the evil water spirit 
that lurks in the depths of the wells and pools, and lures 
the maiden down by the witchery of his strange green 
eyes and the magnetism of his glance ! But above them 
all reigns Pan. The immortal, the great god Pan ! With 
his fierce love of life and his singing soul, he is enshrined 
deeply in the heart and soul of the people ! 

Like Socrates they might say in their simple hearts, 
" Beloved Pan, give me beauty in the inward soul, and 
may the outer and inner man be at one. May I count the 
wise man rich and may my store of gold be such as only 
the good can bear." 1 

Listen all over the land and you will hear his pipes ; 
by river, and mead, and wood ! Hark and you will 
catch the rustle and movement of his strange half-animal 
body as he follows you, whispering and laughing amongst 
the sedges and streams, peeping with slanting eyes through 
the tangle of undergrowth and bracken . . . and his note 

"... Sweet, sweet, O Pan ! 
Piercing sweet by the river" 

permeates all their legendary lore from ancient time up 
to the present day. 

Here in these poetic old-world lands he roams 

1 Phaedrus, 279. 



THE HEART OF ROUMANIA 89 



royally— beloved, serene. In the new world Pan's 
pipes are never heard. He is alien there, unknown, 
unwanted. There is no dusky, dreamy corner in that 
bright new hustling sphere where he can cut a reed, to 
shape and tune it to a plaintive melody that will beguile 
the worker from his toil, pipe he never so sweetly. The 
pools and streams there are beautiful but never haunted 
— Africa and Asia know him not. . . . The Teuton has 
cast him out ; he is too subtle, too wildly sweet for their 
beer-drinking ruralities. But in the glades, the romantic 
woods of fair Italy and France, along the streams, the 
sunny slopes of Greece, the cool, leafy depths of wonder- 
ful England, where the deer seek the shade at noon, the 
wood pigeon murmurs, the wondrous voice of the nightin- 
gale pours forth its shower of silver melody to the star- 
light, and in the lonely pathetic beauty of Roumanian 
lands he pipes with his clear sweet note, and will pipe so 
long as there is left one little wood of enchantment or a 
tender heart to listen. 

* * * * 

And perhaps tenderness, patience, fortitude are some 
of the distinctive qualities that strike one as character- 
istics of the Roumanian peasantry. Theirs is a character 
in many ways complex. Psychologically they present 
the fundamental traits of their ancient origin, with the 
addition of superimposed influences, coloured and 
effected through centuries by the diverse elements and 
races that swept over the land. In outlining briefly those 
influences one must not forget the political circumstances 
that produced them, or that they were transfused only 
through struggle and warfare, and never through the 
channels of peace. 



90 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 

The Roumanian never knew peace or prosperity, and 
it needed the most heroic efforts to prevent his being 
engulfed during the long turmoil of the centuries. This 
has in consequence impressed his character very dis- 
tinctly. The four principal elements that have affected 
this race are the Dacian, Latin, Slav and Greek. Others, 
such as the Hungarian, Turkish, Italian or Germanic, 
have been quite ephemeral. 

The Roman occupation of the Carpatho-Balkan penin- 
sula, which lasted 150 years, with its just military and 
civil organization, and excellent colonizing influence, 
stamped indefinably the Thrac-Illyrian peoples. The 
well-known historians Xenopol, Hasdeu and Jorga have 
demonstrated beyond doubt that, both from the point of 
view of the race and the language, the original Daco- 
Roman mixture produced the following groups : the 
Daco-Roman in the Carpathians, the Meso-Latin of 
Mcesia, or the Balkans, and the Arimoni or Vlachs to- 
wards the Adriatic and Greek peninsula. 

Of the very earliest, the Dacian strain, the Emperor 
Julian the Apostate reports that the great Emperor 
Trajan had said of the race, " I have subjugated the 
Dacian, the most warlike of nations, existing, not only 
because of the strength of their bodies, but also by the 
teaching of their sage Zamolxis, so venerated by them. 
He inculcated that they were never called upon to die, 
but only to pass from one abode to another, and that is 
why they go more gaily towards death than on any other 
journey." The Roman thus grafted on to the vigorous 
Dacian stock proved a strong foundation of union and 
sentiment, a conservation which proved of such resistance 
that it needed some centuries of warfare before the bar- 



THE HEART OF ROUMANIA 91 

barians could settle on the lands once occupied by the 
Roman legions. 

From this early Daco-Roman union the Latin civiliza- 
tion has been transmitted up to the present day on 
Carpatho-Danubian soil, and has bequeathed the qualities 
of resistance and tenacity, the -marvellous instinct of 
conservatism, and the genius of national tradition which 
has saved the race from extinction and preserved, under 
an endless line of shifting rulers, of complex influences, 
the resilience and pertinacity of the national character. 

One is tempted to ask what is the especial fibre in 
nations that conserves their racial individuality and 
strength ? Why is it that Greece, so splendid and power- 
ful in the past, should show such poverty in creative 
faculty in modern times ? 

She produces no warriors, poets, philosophers, sculptors 
as in former days. The same natural influences that once 
inspired them are there. Little has changed, except the 
mind of her people. Professor Xenopol has propounded 
the view that the infusion of the Slav blood was too much 
for the Hellenic temperament, which could stand no 
dilution, and so degenerated. 

Other competent observers say that the Hellenic blood 
has practically disappeared. In some of the isles, 
notably Crete, parts of the Peloponnesus, in a few moun- 
tain districts it may still exist, but the majority of the 
modern Greek population, especially the Athenian, is 
mainly an immigrant strain. 

Italy, on the contrary, who had received all her artistic 
inspiration from Greece in her Roman days, her poetry, 
painting, sculpture, and in some respects her architecture 
being but an elargissement of Greek art, and far less 



92 ROUMANXA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 



naturally endowed than the Greeks, suddenly bloomed 
during the Renaissance into a wonderful period of rich 
and artistic fertility. Where the Romans were great was 
in their military, civil, judicial, colonizing and adminis- 
trative power — the practical side of existence and its 
various activities. Here again the surroundings had not 
changed, yet in this case the admixture of other blood, of 
Germanic origin, had stimulated the mind as well as 
changed the physiologically material substratum of the 
people. But in this instance the admixture which had 
enfeebled the genius of the Greeks had, in the case of the 
more virile Romans, but unchained new forces. 1 
* * * * 

Following on the Roman occupation of the Dacian 
lands the barbaric hordes of Huns and Goths, ancestors 
of the Boche of to-day, ravaged the country. These 
savages, as in present times, were endowed with an in- 
appeasable instinct for blood, conquest and ferocity. 
They passed like a hurricane of destruction over the land 
without in any way touching the ethnology of the people. 
Like mighty storms they swayed back and forth destroy- 
ing, torturing, living by rapine, fire and the sword, but 
never getting at the heart or soul of the race. They only 
succeeded in driving the Daco-Romans off the fertile 
plains into the stern fastnesses of the mountain ranges, 
where they could struggle better to maintain their security 
and national traditions. 

In the seventh century the Slavs forced by over-popula- 
tion and the necessity for expansion migrated into the 
land and settled there. They never conquered the Daco- 
Romans and were a peaceful and not a warlike race. 
1 Les Roumaines, Professor Xenopol. 



THE HEART OF ROUMANIA 93 



They were good agriculturists and after the terrors of the 
Hun and Avare invasions could almost be considered as 
benefactors. Though the tendencies of the Slav and 
Daco-Roman character were diametrically opposed to 
each other, yet their mutual desire for peace drew them 
together politically and socially. 

The Slav blood, dreamy, unpractical, somewhat 
neurotic — and often rather a debilitating influence — 
intermingled with that of these early Roumanians between 
the seventh and eleventh centuries. Though the sturdy 
warlike qualities of their Daco-Roman ancestors enabled 
them to counteract its lethargic influence, still it mani- 
fested itself in some minor points, and without taking 
away from their sound native qualities, it may be said 
to have coloured their natures. A certain indolence, a 
sense of tolerance, of pity, a patience, a strain of 
melancholy and a fatalism might have become weakness, 
had it not been balanced by the natural and indomitable 
persistence of the earlier strain. Many Slav words are 
found in their tongue, but beyond this their influence 
was only partial. 

* * * * 

The Greek influence, which lasted about three centuries, 
was of far greater value than the Slav. In briefly noting 
the former's effect on the national character one must 
remember that there were four various sorts or 
phases of Greeks — the Hellenic, the Byzantine, the 
Phanariot and the Greek of to-day. The first, famous 
for its world-reaching intellectual influence, splendour of 
art and eloquence, its moral, physical and mental equi- 
librium, the "eurythemie" as Plato has called it, and all 
that the world owes to this splendid period in the past, 



94 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 

was introduced by the Roman colonizers into ancient 
Dacia, and the Roumanian of to-day looks back with 
pride to this first faint yet subtle impress on their 
civilization. 

The second the Byzantine left its mark on some of the 
social institutions and customs of the country. This 
extraordinary period of culture, intellectuality, civiliza- 
tion and art ; of pomp and a magnificence that the world 
has ever seen ; of a great religion in which credulity and 
mysticism warred with the instincts of duplicity, perfidy, 
crime ; of a lust of blood and violence such as has rarely 
moved the soul in the annals of history ! " Each of these 
multiple faces of the Byzantine Sphinx has become a 
powerful and typical characteristic, and each plays its part 
in forming the most singular of psychological enigmas. 
This multiplicity of the most important factors of Byzan- 
tine civilization has puzzled the historian ; consequently 
the evil elements have appeared to predominate over the 
good and in the eyes of the Western mind, ill-informed, 
prejudiced or simply horrified, Byzantium appeared as 
the atrocious image of an undeveloped empire, the sink 
of the world, and receptacle of all the crimes. To-day 
we no longer believe these exaggerations. Historians of 
repute have exhumed from the dust of the past the true 
Byzantium, and have done justice to its errors by show- 
ing Byzantium as a city of contrasts, where all the 
civilizations of antiquity have met and been transformed/' 1 

Its influence can be traced on the language, costumes 
and traditions of the Orthodox Church, on the trend of 
political judicial life and thought among the Princes 
and boyars up to the last century, and the practice of 

1 Alexandre Sturdza, La Terre et la Race Roumaine. 



THE HEART OF ROUMANIA 



95 



magic and superstitious rites amongst the peasantry. 
Among the psychological effects are to be noted a diplo- 
matic facility, political intrigue, intellectual curiosity, 
courtesy and the insidious taint of bribery so prevalent 
in Eastern Europe (with its facsimile in the Boloism of 
Western nations), but in Roumania far less marked than 
in the neighbouring countries of Russia, Turkey, Bulgaria 
and Austria. 

Thirdly comes the Greek which can be subdivided, 
first the Phanariot, a successor to the Byzantine influence, 
which notwithstanding their mutual psychological heri- 
tage differed from them in many ways, and secondly the 
" Grecoteiul/' as they are called in Roumania, a bitter 
and scathing term for a class so different from the Hellenic, 
Byzantine and Phanariot that it is difficult to believe 
that it is even a variety of the same type, a type very 
degenerate and degraded by the intermixture of Semitic 
and Oriental blood. This race, which settled in the 
Roumanian principalities in the seventeenth century, 
some historians have unjustly and foolishly mistaken 
for the Phanariots. 

Though the Phanariots had their faults and some their 
vices, yet they were entirely different from this " intriguing 
brood of locusts, who were a species of grasping restless 
oligarchy, a rabble of uncultivated envious upstarts 
gaining influence through the back door ; low, servile, 
cringing ; hard, insolent, rapacious and untruthful." 
They have been characterized by Count Kissileff in a 
celebrated phrase as " the most turbulent and petty 
intriguers of all bearded men who swarm beneath the 
canopy of heaven." 

The Phanariot influence was by far the most penetrating 



96 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 

of all the influences which coloured the national character. 
Notwithstanding the luxury and corruption of their 
political lives, the oppression and taxation under which 
the people groaned, it cannot be denied that these princes 
were the first really " active agents " in promoting 
civilization and culture, and to them is due the sym- 
pathetic encouragement of the luminous thoughts and 
ideas of France. 

Since the reign of Louis XIV the language of diplomacy 
has been French. The Turks, indolent and retrograde, 
would not learn it, and it was the wealthy Greeks of the 
Phanar or Lighthouse who, living in sumptuous state and 
luxury which made their palaces a veritable replica of 
the Byzantine courts, and desirous for power, saw their 
way to achieve it by means of their natural facility for 
languages by becoming interpreters to the Divan. The 
highest post they aspired to was that of Grand Dragoman, 
who was the most influential minister of the Ottoman 
Government, and the great ambition of these Phanariot 
families was this very lucrative and distinguished posi- 
tion, which brought them into close touch with the 
Ambassadors of the foreign powers. In order to obtain 
it they endeavoured to outrival each other in the study 
and practice of French, summoning at great expense, 
secretaries and tutors from France, who introduced to 
them all the customs and ideas of their country. 

These Phanariot Greeks who bought the thrones of 
Wallachia and Moldavia from the Porte thus brought 
the language and culture of France to the principalities, 
and apart from the original Latin strain in the Roumanian 
race it was through them that the French influence took 
root in the country. Secretaries, valets, chefs, professors 



THE HEART OF ROUMANIA 97 



and doctors were engaged by the Hospodars, and French 
refugees from Russia flocked to the luxurious courts of 
these princes. French books began to be read, and the 
less rich boyars who could not engage the French teachers 
got Greek or Italian masters to teach them French. 
Voltaire was so much read by the young men that the 
Patriarch in Constantinople issued a mandate menacing 
those who read his works with the wrath of heaven ; 
while in 1801, a Paris paper the Spectateur du Nord 
writes that " while France is becoming barbarian there 
are barbarian countries that are becoming French." 

During the reign of Michel Soutzo in 1823 this influence 
increased greatly, penetrating the Oriental character 
hitherto prevailing. The daughters of the boyars who 
aspired at possessing any mind or education spoke and 
read it and all sorts of jeux d'esprit were played in 
society. 

A traveller, Kosmali, who was in the country at this time, 
relates that " If a life of ease can be considered as a happy 
existence, without doubt the ladies of the Moldavian 
nobility play this beatific role to perfection, for most of 
their occupation consists of turning the pages of a French 
novel or romance. Finding myself one day in the house 
of a boyar that I visited I saw on a table an open book. 
It was Corinne by Madame de Stael. I turned the pages 
while waiting for the mistress of the house, and noticed 
on the margin several pencil notes in Greek. I also 
noticed that the dear Oswald, the hero, found little grace 
in the eyes of the reader, who never lost an opportunity 
whenever he appeared of addressing him with the not too 
flattering epithets of ' animal/ ' donkey ' and other 
courtesies of the same order ! When Oswald in answer 

H 



98 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 



to the Prince of Cast elf orte, who reproached him on his 
behaviour to Corinne, says, ' You really find me in error, 
Prince,' the indignant reader finally launched out at the 
head of the unfortunate Oswald the energetic epithet of 
' horned ass ' ! The lady entering at that moment and 
finding me smiling, we started a very interesting conversa- 
tion on Corinne and love in general, until suddenly her 
husband in company with another boyar entered the room ; 
our conversation came to an abrupt conclusion, for the 
men of Moldavia find it beneath their dignity to listen to 
the opinions of their womenkind. Taking off their yellow 
slippers they seated themselves d la Turque on the divan, 
ordering coffee and the Tschibouka to be served." 

The Phanariot gift for languages, their energy, political 
dexterity and oratorical powers left a very distinct im- 
press on the nobility of Roumania, among whom they 
intermarried, and the French influence, though dating 
from comparatively recent times, is the most important, 
as it implies the affinity of the race and the psychological 
tendency of the Latin blood. Imported by these Greek 
Phanariot rulers, it has effected more deliberately the 
culture and the intelligence of the nation than its habits, 
and its influence on the upper and middle classes is very 
evident and constantly increasing. More than one dis- 
tinguished family of modern Roumania traces its origin 
to these rulers. 

Thus the French language so harmonious and rich in 
idea, so capable of expressing the nuance of sentiment, 
penetrated the thought and mind of the upper and middle 
classes with an irresistible power. It became the organ 
of expression and thought for all the governing and 
directing classes as well as that of society. French books 



THE HEART OF ROUMANIA 



and reviews circulated among the ranks of those who 
aspired to culture of thought and mind, indeed so much 
did it become the language that hardly any books were 
translated into French, for every one spoke it. The sons 
and daughters of the aristocracy were sent at an early 
age to be educated in France and often forgot their native 
tongue. Not only in the language but in the customs 
and manners ; furnishing, decoration and art ; the 
women's dress and general taste, all were fashioned on the 
French model. The laws and judicial code were copied 
on French lines — in a word, everything was modelled as 
faithfully as possible on the French civilization. 1 

On the other hand, this influence upon the peasantry 
has not been so marked, and beyond the sympathy and 
natural affinity between the two Latin races the peasant 
still remains in paramount possession of the habits and cus- 
toms that have come down to him from early Roman days 
* * * * 

A very interesting section of the Roumanian race, the 
Wallachs, Coutzo-Vlachs or Arimoni as they are called 
in their own tongue, are the only nomads to be found in 
Balkan Europe if we except the gipsy. Their name is a 
synonym for shepherd, and they are a distinctly pastoral 
people. They number about 450,000, and are to be 
found in the Pindus in Thessaly — which by reason of 
their numbers has acquired the name of Great Wallachia 
— at Tricala, Larissa and Elassona ; in Acarnania (Little 
Wallachia), in Albania, near Antivari, Dulcigno E] 
Bassan and in Macedonia. About ten years ago, as a 
result of representations from Roumania, Bulgaria, 
Greece and Serbia were made to guarantee educational 

1 Professor Xenopol, Les Roumaines. 



ioo R0UMAN1A : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 



and religious freedom for the Vlachs resident in their 
lands. 

Lenorment, a French writer, has compared them to the 
shepherds of Homeric days. He found them in Attica 
around the slopes of Daphne, and calls them " The 
Wallachian or Roumanian race," and in describing them 
says, " Wandering is not a necessity that the Vlach has 
had to submit to by force : it is an absolute requirement 
of his nature and his life. Detached from the soil where 
other men are rooted, one could almost think he had 
imbibed some of the instinct of his herd which sent him 
migrating at certain seasons." 

One of the most remarkable features of this interesting 
people, indeed of all the Roumanian race, is the unity of 
their psychology. In all the countries through which this 
section of the race, these exiled and nomadic Wallachians, 
wander, they speak the same tongue, have the same 
manners and customs, songs, dances, music, legends and 
superstitions as the parent stock. As distinct from other 
Latin races, these people, ranging over approximately 
300,000 square kilometres, speak an idiom that is identical, 
whereas in Spain, France, Italy, Belgium, the dialects 
differ greatly according to the provinces. The long years 
of oppression they endured, their pastoral life which 
drew them together at regular seasons of the year for 
their national celebrations and ancient customs, was a 
force which united them and held them together in an 
effort to escape extinction and absorption. 

The wandering spirit is extraordinarily pronounced in 
them. Among the richer classes it shows itself as mer- 
chants travelling to Italy, Austria and even as far as 
Spain, and even when well to do they continue to do this 




PEACE BABIES — BUT ALL BOYS. 



THE HEART OF ROUMANIA 



IOI 



until old age overtakes them. The poorer ones follow 
the life of commercial travellers and pedlars, but by far 
the largest number of these Wallachians or Coutzo- 
Vlachs are pastoral with a passion for freedom, and their 
life is spent in their tents in the highlands in summer, or 
in their camps in the lower lands in winter. 

Their social organization is of a very feudal and 
patriarchal character — twenty to thirty families form a 
little community, a group called a stana or sheep-fold, 
under the headship of an hereditary chief who governs 
his little clan. The patriarch or Tsellinga, as he is called, 
is quite an autocrat and orders all the affairs of his tribe 
— the younger men must wait on him and his guests and 
his word is law to all. 

At Easter-tide they take their flocks of lambs to the 
markets and fairs in the towns, where they are sold in 
thousands. This done they break up their winter quarters 
and trek in a great stream, goats, sheep, donkeys, mules ; 
carts carrying the tents, women and children ; the men 
with their guns and clad in great shaggy sheep-skin coats, 
capas, the fierce yelping Molossian dogs bounding and 
barking on every side, to the summer pastures. The 
men with their herds and dogs generally go up alone to 
the higher slopes, where they live in little huts made of 
branches and brushwood. 

The larger number of them stay in the hills until after 
the Feast of the Apostles, and in September at the Feast 
of the Madonna they descend into the plains according 
to their ancient custom, the shepherds of the higher 
slopes alone staying there until November gloom and 
cold brings them and their flocks also down to the lower 
lands. Hospitality and thrift are marked characteristics 



102 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 



of these Wallachs ; peaceful and unaggressive, they are 
a people of just and equable temperament with a deep 
romantic devotion to their race, its customs and the 
open free life of nature. 

* * * * 

Two other classes must be included in this very brief 
summary of the Roumanian race. These are the gipsies 
and the Jews, two races who live on Roumanian soil but 
are alien to the land. The Tsigan, these mysterious 
children of the East, nomads from far distant Persia and 
Hindustan, penetrated into the country so long ago that 
no authentic information on this point can be obtained. 
They brought with them all the occult knowledge, the 
rites, the customs and handicrafts, which as dancers, 
musicians, soothsayers, fortune-tellers, weavers of spells, 
brewers of potions and love philters, as masons, horse 
doctors, tinkers of brass and copper work, have given 
them a place — though a shifting and degraded one — 
through all the lands of Europe. 

It is, however, principally as musicians that they excel, 
and the musical profession is almost a monopoly in their 
hands. Their music is a wild, plaintive, erotic one, 
passionate and deeply stirring, with a strain of savage 
despair, a restless ardour, alternating with a languor, a 
strange brooding melancholy, exciting and unrestful, 
that seems to hold some ancient secret, primitive, guarded, 
inscrutable. 

As they wander westwards they lose this precious in- 
born gift. The cold grey skies, the harsher reserve of the 
northern temperament seem to affect them vaguely, 
stifling their joyous song and dance, hampering the savage 
vitality of their stringed accord. But in these Balkan 



THE HEART OF ROUMANIA 



103 



lands, in Hungary, Russia, Turkey they retain the full 
command and witchery of their wild instinctive music 
and magic. 

Though they are called in by the peasants on all occa- 
sions to celebrate with their music at births, marriages 
and deaths ; for charms against the evil eye or the 
terrible vampires so profoundly believed in ; by the rich 
for the stringed music which accompanies all their 
parties ; they are yet looked upon as a despised race ; a 
caste, the slavery and bonds of which have only been 
released within recent years, and who take little part in 
the national life. 

The Roumanian gipsy is the handsomest of them all. 
In olden times they used to be bought and sold with the 
estates, but in 1855 they obtained their freedom. They 
are liable for military service, which they often evade by 
means of their wandering habits, and they are taxed. 
This yearly tax used to be paid by sifting the gold dust 
washed down from the mountains by the rivers Arges 
and Dimbovitza. They are of medium height, swarthy, 
slender, but of a physical strength quite extraordinary, 
especially amongst the male gipsies of the towns, who as 
hammals or porters lift incredibly heavy weights. In dis- 
position they are untruthful, cunning and somewhat 
cowardly — a gay, inconsequent nature, yet subject to 
moods of jealousy and quick flares of fury. Bound by 
no conventions they may profess the religion of the 
country, but they practise none beyond their own 
primitive worship of nature and its mysterious rites. 
Naked, predatory, content, their wants are few and are 
often supplied by pilfering from the nearest farmyard. 

With their prolific families and savage dogs they live 



104 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 

in tumble-down huts and dugouts on the outskirts of the 
villages and towns, or in the picturesque encampments 
of the more prosperous nomadic tribes. Ragged and 
unkempt, extraordinarily picturesque in their gaudy 
rags, with their flashing, heavily fringed eyes, white 
teeth, their graceful limbs and brilliant smiles they fear 
neither God nor man, cold nor heat. The freedom for their 
wild, untrammelled lives, the warmth of the sun, the cool 
sweet breath of the wind, something to eat — be it mine or 
thine — liberty and love — is all these dusky vagrants of 

nature demand of life. 

* * * * 

The Jewish immigration into Roumania is of com- 
paratively recent date, and we only hear of them there 
in the seventeenth century. Their numbers were small 
then and were not augmented until the Phanariot period. 
In 1803 they only numbered 10,000, and their pre- 
tension as to being old inhabitants of the country is 
therefore without foundation. Overflowing from Russia 
and Galicia, two reasons induced them to emigrate, the 
desire to evade military service in Russia and the know- 

\ ledge that as strangers in Roumania they might invoke 
the protection of the Consols of the foreign powers in 
evading the payment of taxes. For by virtue of old 
treaties with Turkey the nobility and strangers in Rou- 
mania were exempt from taxation. 

The Jews, who are ethnographically intruders in Rou- 
mania, were not allowed to acquire land unless they, like 
other strangers, were naturalized ; this legislative pre- 
caution existed also in other lands, such as England, 
Holland, etc., in order to prevent the Jew obtaining a 
stranglehold on the simple peasantry. 



THE HEART OF ROUMAN1A 105 

A very large proportion of these Jews were only 
Israelite in name and were not of Semitic blood but of 
Mongol-Tartar strain, of Mosaic belief, and as the cele- 
brated Russian statesmen Prince Gortchakoff said at the 
Congress of Berlin, at a moment when he was animated 
with nothing but the kindliest sentiments for Roumania, 
" His Serene Highness must not confound the Jews of 
London, Paris, Berlin or Vienna, to whom one could 
assuredly never refuse any civil or political rights, with 
the Jews of Serbia, Roumania and those of some of the 
Russian provinces, who are a veritable scourge for the 
indigenous population." 1 

Again, another authority declares that there is a vast 
difference between the so-called Jew of Roumania and 
the Israelite of other countries. The former has none of 
the Hebraic or Semitic type ; they are descendants of the 
Mosaic Khazare hordes who in the eleventh century were 
attacked by Sviastoslav and crushed by the Slav forces. 
The true Israelite of Western Semitic race has nothing in 
common with them but religion, and this has never been 
considered by anyone as a criterion of race ; besides the 
Jews of Galicia, of Russia and Roumania, even from the 
religious point of view, distinguish themselves from the 
Israelites of the race of Levi, from the Talmudists, or the 
Israelites, adepts of the Kabbale, or the esoteric tradi- 
tions. Some few indeed of those exist in Roumania ; 
and one can pick them out by their Semitic type — an 
interesting one — their customs and their names. It seems 
thus very strange on the part of the Jews of the West to 
show such a curious interest and sympathy in the flotsam 
and jetsam of the mosaical Khazares of the yellow race. 2 

1 Congress of Berlin, Protocol No. 8, 28th June, 1878; 

2 A. Sturdza, La Terre et la Race Roumaine, 



♦ 



106 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 

Here they number nearly 400,000 as against 7,000,000 
of the indigenous population, whereas in France they are 
only 80,000 against 40,000,000 inhabitants. The Jews 
increase more rapidly than any people except the 
Armenians. They congregate in the larger towns, and 
though in Northern Moldavia there are a few purely 
Jewish villages and colonies reminding one of Poland, 
yet in some of the towns they have increased so rapidly 
that they are in the majority. The Moldavian Jews are as 
different from the French of Jewish faith as the " Haitian 
Catholics or the Maronite Catholics in Syria " are to the 
Catholics of France or Italy. In Bucharest and the 
southern part of Roumania one finds a considerable 
number of Spanish Jews of the real Semitic race who have 
wandered up from Salonika, their great centre, and who 
are much superior to this other class. 

With regard to a certain feeling of distrust and sus- 
picion that exists between them and the Roumanians, 
this is not due to the question of their religion, but because 
wherever they settle they try to undercut the peasants or 
workers and oust them from their natural occupations. A 
very large proportion of them by birth as well as by will, 
customs, mind and language are strangers to the country 
they live in. They will not send their children to the 
national schools and insist on retaining their German- 
Yiddish jargon, and finally, as a well-known writer has 
said, " they will not serve or be taught, cultivate or pay ; 
they participate in no effort, make no sacrifices and do 
not even submit to the orders of the police, to the rules 
of hygiene, and will wield neither the plough, pickaxe nor 
the rifle." 

The greater proportion of these Roumanian Jews are 



THE HEART OF ROUMANIA 107 



not like those living in Austria, France, England, who 
speak the language of the country they live in, and show 
a practical or benevolent interest in the land that is 
sheltering them and giving them a living. If they were 
like those of other countries, identifying themselves with 
the national interests, language, etc., the Roumanians 
would not feel so sore ; but they show no sympathy or 
understanding beyond that of their own material gain, 
and in recent years as an economic advance-guard of 
German influence ; and that is why Roumania endeavours 
to keep her Latin life free from their infiltration. 

It is a pregnant question and one which in the past has 
been greatly aggravated by faults on both sides. But a 
spirit of reconciliation, a sense of justice has of late years 
contributed very largely to smooth these matters over 
and to give some prospect of an early solution of the 
problem, and citizenship with its attendant rights is 
already well assured for these peoples. 



CHAPTER V 



THE WOOF AND WARP OF HER DESTINY 

To attempt to dominate the East, forms the keystone of German 
Welt-politik . — G . W. Prothero. 

ONE of the oldest of the problems that have 
confronted the chancelleries of Europe is the 
Eastern Question. It has been regarded as a 
chronic malady, a necessary evil to be borne 
with patience. No one has had sufficient courage or 
diplomatic skill to try and cure, or improve the position ; 
with the result that these unhappy Balkan states — the 
whirlpool of every intrigue and covetous instinct of the 
greater nations — have ever been at the mercy of the 
quack charlatan and adventurer of neighbouring pre- 
datory powers, seeking only their own advantage. 

One writer has said that the " Near Eastern Question 
may be defined as the problem of filling up the vacuum 
created by the gradual disappearance of the Turkish 
Empire in Europe." 1 

This but embraces one small point of view. True, the 
conquest and disappearance of that " presence embedded 
in the living flesh of Europe of an alien substance — the 
Ottoman Turk," has permitted these countries, Roumania, 
Serbia, Greece, Bulgaria to escape from the Turkish 
whirlpool that for centuries had sucked them under. 
But their size, added to the vigorous, national spirit 

1 Dr. Miller. 

1 08 



THE WOOF AND WARP OF HER DESTINY 109 



which converted them into thriving States so quickly, 
attracted the envy of the Central Powers — a coalition 
more than the equal of the Turk in esprit de rapine, 
cruelty and sinister diableries. 

Little has been known of Roumania's attitude towards 
the other Balkan states by the general public ; less 
indeed of the country itself ; but her entry into the war 
on the side of the Entente has inevitably stimulated 
interest in this beautiful land. The fact that one of the 
loveliest of our English princesses is her Queen, and that 
historically and commercially she is an Ally whom we 
welcome with pride, is universally recognized to-day. 

To realize clearly her position and to understand the 
reasons for her intervention it is necessary to cast one's 
eyes over the later years, leading up to her decision in 
favour of the Allied cause. 

The first seeds of Prussian influence in Roumania were 
sown in 1866, when a German, Prince Charles or Carol of 
Hohenzollern, was elected to the throne. 

It was perhaps only natural that after the appropria- 
tion of the Roumanian province of Bessarabia by Russia 
in 1878 — a mean and ungrateful return for the successful 
aid the small state lent the great nation at Plevna — a 
deep feeling of resentment was left among the Roumanian 
people, stifling cordiality or goodwill between the two 
countries. 

France, notwithstanding racial traits, and the natural 
bonds of sympathy between her and Roumania, was 
bleeding from her defeat in 1870, and could give little 
promise of anything in the way of practical support in 
the working out of Roumania's national destiny. England, 
indifferent and remote, rendered the eagerly proffered 



no ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 



friendship of Germany the easiest solution of the problem. 
To Prince Carol, impressed with the power and develop- 
ment of the land of his birth, the scheme was particularly 
acceptable. At first unpopular, and received with sus- 
picion by Roumanians, this German rapprochement was 
approved later, and under its influence the country made 
such progress that Roumanian statesmen, gradually 
becoming more responsive, were willing to accept 
Germany's exuberant offers of help and loans for the 
further development of the country. 

Complete reorganization of the army was one of the 
first matters to which Prince Carol devoted his attention. 
German officers were invited as instructors, German 
engineers and contractors invaded the country, without 
opposition, for the building of necessary railways and 
bridges. With the usual Teutonic intensity Germano- 
Jewish financiers busied themselves over the budding 
prospects of the land. 

To Roumanian statesmen the country lay between the 
devil and the deep sea ; represented by the Central 
Powers and Russia. Unfortunately, the devil was their 
choice, for as usual his bribes were manifold, his energy 
immense. 

In 1883 the rapprochement became an alliance, though 
not a publicly acknowledged one, due perhaps to a desire 
on the part of the Prince not to offend Roumanian popular 
sentiment, which, with the exception of a few politicians, 
was persistently Latin. 

Historical as well as racial affinity inclined Roumania 
to the Latin Powers, and not the Teuton. Rome was 
indeed the ancient mother of the race ; but it is to the 
elder sister, France, that Roumania, "un ilot latin au 



THE WOOF AND WARP OF HER DESTINY in 



milieu de l'ocean slave et finnois qui renvironne," looks 
with love and devotion, and France returns the affection. 
And the Western nation is proud of this little sister — a 
distant outpost of the same great civilization and culture 
— standing at the frontier of the East — not the wonderful 
and ancient East of India with its long history and deep 
wisdom — but the East of the barbarian, the Turk, the 
Kurd, and the Bulgar. 

But Prince Carol, working conscientiously and with 
shrewd tenacity for what he considered the best interests 
of his adopted land, encouraged German enterprise and 
influence. Imperceptibly at first, but very surely, the 
essence of Prussianism permeated all the various channels 
of national Roumanian life ; thus one more link was 
forged in the Drang nach Osten policy of Berlin. 

* * * * 

On the outbreak of the first Balkan War, in 1913, 
Roumania stood aloof. Taking no part, she watched, 
however, necessarily interested in maintaining the Balkan 
equilibrium, and with an eye on the sinister Bulgarian 
schemes and ambitions. It was not until the Judas of 
the Slav race, Bulgaria — that jackal of the Teuton and 
the Turk — treacherously turned upon her Allies, that 
Roumania intervened. Knowing what a cat's-paw 
Germany possessed in the person ality of the vicious and 
unscrupulous ruler of Bulgaria, Ferdinand the Fox, the 
little State realized how resolutely — and successfully — 
Berlin was intriguing to bring the Moslem world under 
her heel, staking all on domination in the Balkans and a 
Mittel-Europa policy. 

Roumania determined to cast her influence on the side 
of the small nations, fighting for their independence ; and 



H2 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 



siding with Greece, Serbia and Montenegro, she declared 
war on Bulgaria. This was not done as an excuse for 
increasing her territory, for she only accepted the rectifica- 
tion of her strategical frontier by the acquisition of the 
Dobrudja, the barren and sandy belt south of the Danube 
Delta. She recognized that if she failed to support 
Serbia and Greece, and they were defeated by Bulgaria, 
Germany with her claws deeply imbedded in Roumanian 
vitals, with the control of the greater part of her indus- 
tries and finance, would become omnipotent in the 
Balkans, with a clear road from Berlin to Bagdad — a 
perpetual menace to peace and the development of the 
small nations that lay in the path of the Juggernaut. 

In his endeavour to bind the Sultan by ties of gratitude 
to Germany, the Kaiser had spared no pains, nor left un- 
tried any wiles of bribery or flattery which might serve 
this end. Even the terrible massacres of the Christian 
Armenians did not stem the generous flow of his esteem, 
and the very moment when the world was voicing its 
horror and condemnation was chosen by the All Highest 
to accentuate his friendship for Turkey and demonstrate 
his admiration for this nation of assassins. 

When Abdul Hamid was dethroned, the Kaiser merely 
shifted the object of his attentions, and continued to 
shower his favours and advice upon the ambitious up- 
start leader of the Young Turk party, Enver Bey, he who 
so ruthlessly "removed" older and truer patriots from 
his tortuous " German -made " path. In Enver Bey, 
Berlin discovered the perfect tool to shape the Kaiser's 
projects ; while the Turkish capital provided the most 
fertile ground for the cultivation of an infamous Austro- 
German system of intrigue, bribery and massacre. On 



THE WOOF AND WARP OF HER DESTINY 113 



this poisonous diet the Turkish nation was fed and 
cunningly encouraged to continue their diabolical policy. 
But it was a policy. And a French writer has very truly 
remarked : " La politique utilitaire d'Allemagne, si 
odieuse soit elle au sentiment Europeen, est au moins 
une politique ; elle gagne a FEmpereur Guillaume les 
sympathies du monde Mussulman, ouvre les voies au 
commerce et impose un certain respect. . . . L'Orient ne 
respect e que la force." 1 

Austria meanwhile seconded her neighbour's efforts to 
the fullest extent by the development of her own schemes 
of conquest. The Serb provinces of Bosnia and Herze- 
govina had been audaciously annexed, and Franz Joseph, 
the absolute monarch of a Hapsburg autocracy of the 
most pronounced type, dreamed the same grandiose 
dreams of glory as Germany. But to pursue his schemes 
of spoliation he needed the powerful backing of his Ally. 
Alone he could not do it ; for, as Take Jonescu very 
truly observes of the Dual Monarchy, she is " a fossil in 
the modern world ; a state, without being a nation — 
only a dynasty, a government and an army. There are 
many nations within the Hapsburg Empire. The only 
one not to be found there is the Austrian nation, for it does 
not exist. If a railway accident were to kill off all the 
members of the Hapsburg family, Austria would auto- 
matically cease to exist. Being nothing but a govern- 
ment and an army, she can contemplate any kind of 
conquest with a freedom of mind impossible for other 
states, which are nations as well." 2 

This anachronism the Austrian Empire is very Asiatic 
in type, the Emperor as a Sultan being the patriarchal 

1 Gaulis. 2 Origins of the War. 

I 



ii4 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 

and extremely arbitrary chief of a very stiff archaic and 
unprogressive group of people who circle like satellites 
around his person. A dynasty or family and a govern- 
ment composed of archdukes and archduchesses with a 
very limited addition of a few families of courtiers, 
adventurers and aristocrats of the most exclusively con- 
servative and mentally inert type. 

But the unwieldiness of his Empire, the bitter clash of 
alien races forcibly held under his rule, their unrest and 
discontent did not discourage Franz Joseph from dream- 
ing of further conquest, supported always by the might 
of Germany. Austria " clutched the hair of diverse popu- 
lations and having clutched kept tugging there." 

Franz Joseph aimed at incorporating Roumania, 
Serbia and Bulgaria with the Austrian Empire on the 
footing of Federal States ; and his secret agent, M. Riedl, 
was sent to Bucharest in 1912 to spy out the land accord- 
ingly. Take Jonescu relates how this secret-service 
agent divided " the states of Europe into three groups : 
the Pirate States, i.e. France and England, who must be 
driven out of the continental markets ; the Asiatic State 
of Russia, whose frontiers must be set back beyond 
Moscow ; and the rest of the States, all of which, includ- 
ing Switzerland and Italy, were to enter the Customs 
union with Austria and Germany.' ' A modest and 
pacific scheme indeed ! 

Austria's ambitious design to secure access to the 
^Egean was apparent to all. The Kaiser, nursing since 
1890 his Berlin-to-Basra-and-Beyond designs, never 
rested. The vigour of the Balkan League, and the great 
growth of the national spirit of these States, as well as 
the fine fighting qualities, so successfully displayed by 



THE WOOF AND WARP OF HER DESTINY 115 



them, was a serious drawback to Prussian plans. But 
vast ambitions were at stake, and every effort was made 
by the Central Powers on the conclusion of the Balkan 
War to prevent a satisfactory settlement, for this would 
have seriously thwarted all their schemes. 

Serbia blocked Germany's road to the East as well as 
Austria's access to the iEgean Seas, and the award of 
Salonica to Greece was a severe blow to the Central 
Powers who had coveted this great harbour above all. 
It was a prize indeed for Greece. In population far 
exceeding Sofia and Belgrade, and in Greece itself second 
only to Athens, it is also by far the largest port in these 
regions, and carries the lion's share of shipping in the 
Balkans. 

The Central Powers, feverishly anxious to extend their 
own sea-board at the expense of the smaller states, made 
frantic efforts to prevent Serbia being awarded a port on 
the Adriatic which she had so justly deserved, and in this 
they were successful. The further outcome of German 
tactics resulted in Bulgaria being effectually estranged ; 
a German vassal nominally ruled as Sultan at Constanti- 
nople, while a German Queen and pro-German King 
governed despotically at Athens. Could anything have 
been more satisfactory to the enemies of European free- 
dom ? 

Germany's Mittel-Europa policy was what she went to 
war for. It was a careful and systematically organized 
plan of robbery prepared during the years of peace 
hypocrisy by the Kaiser and the Military Autocrats who 
govern his Empire. History will in all probability be 
able to demonstrate by circumstantial evidence that the 
murder of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand was deliberately 



n6 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 



planned in order to facilitate this scheme and to provoke 
a quarrel with Serbia who blocked the Germano- Austrian 
way to the East. The policy was a vast scheme of 
aggressive intent to divide Europe in two. Germany's 
vassals, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey, with the 
forced addition of Roumania, Serbia and Greece, were to 
be under her control from the Baltic to the iEgean and 
from Berlin to the Bosphorus and the Persian Gulf. All 
were to be served and maintained by her Berlin to Bagdad 
line. 

This policy Haldane MacPhail says was " strategic 
in its object, it would give her a solid Central Europe as 
a magnificent jumping-off ground, off which to leap to 
the great adventure. It split the world apart and 
Germany was on the wedge. . . . Roumania and Serbia 
alone barred the way, but the gate of Serbia must at any 
rate at all costs be smashed in and a Pan-German empire 
would be complete. Roumania could be swallowed as 
Holland could be swallowed when required." 1 

The Pan-German plan was also intended to baulk her 
enemies' defence by isolating Russia and Roumania, 
rendering it difficult for their Allies to assist or co-operate 
with them, and thus make them of little use as Allies. 

Part of this ambitious and predatory plan included 
the building of a ship canal to link up the North Sea 
rivers with the Danube. By this means she would be 
able to transfer destroyers, submarines, light cruisers, 
aeroplanes and munitions by an alternative and less 
expensive route than the railway, from the North Sea to 
the Black Sea, and thus securely transport all the war 
material she needed by an unassailable overland route, 

1 Germany at Bay. 



I 



THE WOOF AND WARP OF HER DESTINY 117 



while England could only do so through the submarine- 
infested Mediterranean. With a big naval base behind 
the Dardanelles she would also be a constant menace to 
us in the Eastern Mediterranean and to our possessions in 
Egypt and the Soudan, India and beyond. As Hans 
Delbruck has said : " The main ganglion of the British 
Empire is Egypt and the Suez Canal. If Turkey comes 
out of the war a strong state and provides itself with 
railways, England can never go on holding Egypt with 
six thousand European soldiers, and if England loses the 
Canal all the bands connecting the Empire are loosened/' 

It wants little imagination to realize the extreme danger 
of this scheme in the hands of a relentless, audacious and 
unscrupulous Empire like Germany, acutely covetous and 
jealous of Britain's power, or the ominous peril thus 
threatened her. Egypt in German occupation — and this 
would be the first prize aimed at — would be the death- 
knell of the whole British Empire. 

* * * * 

The general lack of intelligent interest on the part of 
the British public in foreign affairs was doubly accentuated 
in the case of the Balkan question. From the comfort- 
able recesses of Western arm-chairs, the Balkans were 
ignorantly regarded as being bound up with the political 
destiny of semi-savage races. Entirely oblivious of the 
fact that these "semi-savage" states had a most direct 
bearing on Britain's tenure of her Eastern Empire, these 
vital pages of history had practically no interest for the 
average Briton. Safe by his own fireside, John Bull — 
en bloc — overlooked the essential fact that the Balkan 
States collectively form a most important part in the 
great overland route to England's possessions in India 



n8 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 



and beyond, and that Serbia was the " guardian of the 
gate " in the East, just as Belgium is in the West. 

Serbia was not a mere excuse for the war, she was the 
principal pivot of it, and with the fall of Serbia Germany 
achieved her purpose, her Pan-German map. Great 
Britain has been indifferent and neglectful of Balkan 
questions, with the consequence that the Central Powers 
have only too eagerly picked up the golden chances so 
readily relinquished, and joyously profiting by the 
lethargy of those who guided England's foreign policy, 
the Austro-German forces established themselves firmly 
in the political, financial and industrial life of the Balkan 
Peninsula. 

Our statesmen, Foreign Office and diplomatists have 
displayed such ignorance and ineptitude coupled with in- 
excusable blindness that Bulgaria and Turkey were able 
to successfully befool them, while Greece showed to what 
depths of treachery and intrigue a suborned royalty 
could go, without opening their eyes to the fact that 
for Britain Serbia and in a lesser degree Roumania meant 
a mighty bulwark to her destiny. 

For Roumania's intervention in the Balkan War we 
owe her a big debt : such luck for us was far greater than 
our diplomatists deserved. The little State, so casually, 
so ignorantly regarded by many ignorant insular Britishers 
as semi-barbaric, was able in conjunction with her Allies 
to stave off, for a while at least, Germany's triumphant 
progress eastwards. 

Had this check not been placed on Teutonic activities, 
our task in the present great war would have been im- 
measurably increased, if not rendered insurmountable. 
Apart from this, one other noteworthy result was obtained 



THE WOOF AND WARP OF HER DESTINY 119 

by this intervention. In linking herself with her Allies 

Roumania definitely and deliberately broke away from 

German influence, and ruptured the agreement by which 

the Central Powers had striven to hold her bound and 

captive since 1883. 

* * * * 

On the map of Europe Roumania's position is a curious 
and interesting one. Her policy in the past has been 
largely influenced by it, and her hopes for a peaceful, 
fully-developed future depend greatly upon its recon- 
struction on purely national lines. On this depends her 
success in the years to come, provided that she can 
obtain from her jealous and envious neighbours a 
strategical frontier more closely corresponding with her 
natural racial boundaries. 

The Roumanian kingdom of to-day consists of the 
ancient principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia with the 
Dobrudja. She is a distant outpost of Western culture 
on the edge of the barbarian fringe, and is the bridge 
between the Eastern and Western civilizations of Europe. 

In the fifteenth century Roumania was square in shape, 
consisting of the aforementioned principalities with the 
addition of Bessarabia, Transylvania and the Bukovina. 
Present-day Roumania, owing to incursions by neigh- 
bouring powers, has been deprived of these last three, 
and now consists only of Moldavia, Wallachia and the 
Dobrudja. 

The geographical outline of the kingdom as it exists 
to-day is that of a boot in shape. The foot portion 
contains the rich oil regions and great grain-producing 
district of Wallachia with its progressive and charming 
capital, Bucharest. The northern or ankle portion of the 



120 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 



boot being Moldavia, a bleaker, barer land, with the old 
capital, Jassy, near the Russian frontier. 

The southern frontier is bounded by the Dobrudja and 
the Danube, stretching a distance of 250 miles, and 
dividing Roumania from Bulgaria. The Dobrudja under 
Roumanian rule has made vast progress ; roads, railways, 
the Carol Bridge, the transformation of Constanza into a 
great port, a just treatment of the Turk and Bulgar popu- 
lation have made " this corner of Asia a pearl of Europe.' ' 

Russia, with Roumania's ancient province Bessarabia, 
lies to the north, the river Pruth dividing them ; east, 
the Black Sea — " l'Ocean Slav " — laps her shores ; while 
to the west, facing the predatory Central Powers, the 
Carpathian Alps stretch for 370 miles, dividing her from 
those lost provinces, Transylvania and the Bukovina. 
If these were added to the kingdom the general con- 
formation of the country would resemble a square, with 
an increase of three hundred miles to its territory. 

Austria filched these provinces in 1867, and this theft 
lies as deep and rankling a wound in the nation's heart 
as Alsace and Lorraine are to France. Could she redeem 
these lands — the loved and lost, the most cherished and 
coveted jewels of the ancient nation's diadem — whose 
people look towards the Motherland with faith uncon- 
querable — Roumania's dearest dream would be consum- 
mated. For there lies her ancient capital ; the mausoleum 
of her kings, the many precious monuments and records of 
the past. / All her historic traditions point to these lost 
provinces as the home of her ancient people. " Les 
Carpathes sont notre histoire, les Carpathes sont le ber- 
ceau de notre race " is the deep national sentiment voiced 
by one of their statesmen. 



THE WOOF AND WARP OF HER DESTINY 121 



The main problem of Roumania's Risorgimento and 
the principal cause for her entry into the European war 
centres round the question of her four million sons in 
Transylvania, exiled and cruelly oppressed by the 
Austro-Hungarian Government. Whatever claim the 
Austrian historians may put forward there is no doubt 
that Transylvania has always been Roumanian, that the 
Daco-Roumans occupied the northern bank of the Danube 
from earliest times, and that it was not until the tenth 
century that the Magyar irruption into Transylvania 
took place. They found Wallachia inhabited by large 
numbers of Daco-Roumans, and it seems that the 
Magyars derived their first civilization from these 
Roumans, adopting Latin as their official language. 

The Roumanian language, spoken by twelve millions of 
people, is the most ancient of the neo-Latin tongues, a 
mixture of a vulgar Latin spoken by the Latinized Roman 
citizen and the tongue of the vanquished Dacian. Byzan- 
tine historians aver that it was spoken in the sixth 
century, and in 571 the Roumanians when attacked and 
put to flight by the savage avare tribesmen reformed 
their ranks shouting, " Tourna ! Tourna, fratre." 1 

In Wallachia and especially Transylvania, the cradle of 
the race, the population spoke " frequent Latine," or as 
an English traveller wrote in 1673 of the people he met in 
Transylvania who " have the commendation to speak 
generally Latin." 2 It certainly was spoken from earliest 
times and long before the Magyar invasion. In none of 
the documents between 1291 and 1830 is there found 
but the slightest trace of Magyar peasantry in Transyl- 
vania. This tongue has continued ever since, " a mother 

1 Travels in Hungary. London, 1673. 2 Ibid. 



122 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 



tongue, a speech of daily intercourse, the only means of 
expression for the land worker and the shepherd in the 
mountains, and it has caught in its cadence the very 
soul of the race." 1 

Again, the very great number of place names show 
that the Rouman tongue was in use there previous to the 
seventh century, and the very large preponderance of 
Roumanians over the Hungarian population — which has 
persisted through the centuries notwithstanding the long 
systematic ill treatment, suppression and helotry — is a 
still further convincing proof of this, affording a very 
powerful argument in favour of the Roumanian, and 
very little for the Magyar claim, while the dictum prior 
tempore potior jure could surely always be substantially 
advanced by the former. 

The Magyar, like the Turk, rules the unfortunate races 
that come under his lash with the bitterest oppression, 
reaction and oligarchism, indeed Christian populations 
have often preferred Turkish suzerainty to the atrocious 
and savage despotism of the Christian and Apostolic 
Empire. In 1822 Milos, the great Liberator of Serbia, 
said : "If you sum everything up you will agree with me 
that it would be better for the Serbians to endure the 
tyranny of the Turks than to lie down under the yoke 
that Austria is preparing for them." 

The Roumanians in Transylvania defended their rights 
against the usurper with stubborn tenacity. Between 
1291 and 1848 there were five big revolutions against the 
Magyar tyranny. These were put down with revolting 
cruelty. On one occasion, Georghe Doja, the leader, was 
dressed as a king and " was set upon a red-hot iron 

! Times Literary Supplement, 1916. 



THE WOOF AND WARP OF HER DESTINY 123 



throne, an iron crown was put on his head and a sceptre 
of the same in his hand, both red-hot. In this state half- 
roasted, nine of his principal accomplices, nearly starved 
to death with hunger, were let loose upon him and ate 
their pretended king. The others who would not were 
immediately cut to pieces, and this implacable hatred 
and injustice to the people of Transylvania exists even 
to-day. 1 "Here in this land neither a Saxon will marry 
a Hungarian nor a Wallachian with a Hungarian,' ' and 
Count Tisza has voiced their Hungarian fear when he 
says, " Magyar and Germans will be overflooded with the 
Roumanian population of Transylvania," and indeed he 
only speaks the truth of this annexed land, the special 
Latinity of Transylvania and its preponderantly Rou- 
manian population and history. 

tl Nowhere in the world has Austria done good," said 
Gladstone, and history can testify that everywhere she 
has done evil. 

The Roumanians in Transylvania number about 
3,500,000, but there are also to be included in the exiled 
sons of this race those in Bessarabia and elsewhere. An 
approximate figure of the Roumanian race distributed in 
Eastern Europe and the Balkan Peninsula would be as 
follows : — 

Roumania proper ..... 7,000,000 

Transylvania ...... 3,500,000 

Bessarabia . . . . . . 1,370,000 

Bukovina . . . . . 230,000 

Serbia . . . . . . . 200,000 

Coutza-Vlachs or Arimoni of the Balkans . 4 50,000 

12,750,000 

1 Travels in Hungary. Robert Townson, ll.d., f.r.s., 1793, 
Edinburgh. 



124 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 



It will thus be seen that nearly four millions of her 
countrymen are condemned to harsh restrictions and the 
arbitrary rule of the Dual Monarchy. With relentless 
despotism, first the Austrian, later the Hungarian, have 
tried to reduce the spirit of this people ; to stamp out, in 
arrogant Magyar way, all that was Latin in their nature. 
But with the courage, the tenacity so often born of 
desperation, the sword, the gibbet, the cell, even famine 
itself, has failed to crush them or make them betray 
their language, faith and customs held through a thousand 
years of strife. 

Take Jonescu, the ardent apostle of Roumanian Irre- 
denta, and the distinguished statesman, has said : " If I 
thought that the Roumanians of Transylvania could ever 
conceivably become Magyar I should give up politics 
altogether ; for it would no longer be worth while for us 
Roumanians of the kingdom to go on living." 

Hungarian has been made the official language. In the 
schools and churches Magyar has been forced upon the 
Roumanian people, and this notwithstanding that in some 
districts the population of Roumanian to Magyar is 63 to 23. 

" In all Hungary there is no official Roumanian school 
either elementary or superior. The poor Roumanian 
peasant since the beginning of last century has established 
schools for his children by voluntary subscription. The 
Hungarians became furious and when by the settlement 
of 1868 they became unjustly, and contrary to all his- 
torical rights, masters of Transylvania, they did all they 
could to annihilate those schools. ... In one year alone 
400 Roumanian schools were destroyed and replaced by 
Hungarian ones." 1 

1 Roumania Irredenta, N. Lupu. 



THE WOOF AND WARP OF HER DESTINY 125 

Almost every newspaper has been suppressed at one 
time or the other, and Roumanian journalists have been 
condemned in the last eighteen years to terms of im- 
prisonment amounting to more than a hundred years, 
and fines for criticizing the Magyars — lese-magyarism as 
it is called — aggregating 250,000 francs. Their mis- 
carriage of justice is as notorious and unjust as the 
iniquitous examples in Croatia, and the Magyar police 
rule with a brutality and inhumanity that is almost 
unimaginable. The constant, rigorous prosecution for 
dancing the national dances, singing the songs, wearing 
the colours, reading Roumanian books, are too numerous 
to mention. The law can take any children away from 
their parents, should they bear a grudge against them, or 
consider them incompetent, and hand them over to 
infant asylums to be denationalized. Could anything be 
more revolting in this the twentieth century of a so-called 
civilization ? 

Politically the Roumans have no rights, and the utmost 
abuse is resorted to, to prevent them getting the ex- 
tremely limited and restricted franchise allowed them. In 
the last general election of 1910, terrorization, repression 
and corruption of the grossest form were used, and im- 
mense numbers of soldiers were despatched to give effect 
to this wholesale suppression of elementary political rights . 
Astounded at the general outcry, the Hungarian Govern- 
ment reluctantly admitted that it had " only employed 
194 battalions of infantry and 114 squadrons of cavalry 
to secure their aims against unarmed civilians ! " 

Out of 4,000,000 Roumanians of Transylvania, repre- 
senting 80 per cent of the population, only five members 
of the National Roumanian Party have seats, though 



ia6 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 

by the Hungarian census the number should have been 
at least 80 ! On the other hand, the Hungarians whose 
numbers are so enormously inferior to the Roumanian 
send 300 ! As a writer has said : " What would the 
world say if the British Government only allowed four 
Irish Home Rulers instead of eighty-six to sit in the 
House of Commons, yet the Roumanians form between 
a sixth and a fifth of the total population of Hungary, 
whereas the Irish (including Ulster Unionists) are about a 
tenth of the total population of the British Isles." 1 

So-called justice is administered in the Magyar tongue, 
and in the Magyar fashion, and so prejudiced is it that if 
a Roumanian takes his case to court his cause is lost in 
advance. Hundreds of thousands of this fine race have 
fled from this oppression and sinister tyranny, and have 
emigrated to the States ; that new free world, now allied 
with the battling nations to crush this monstrous Austro- 
German octopus that slowly strangles to death all that 
it grasps within its poisonous clutch. 

So cruel was the oppression meted out to the Roumans 
that on the occasion of the Emperor Franz Joseph's tour 
through Transylvania, it was necessary for the Govern- 
ment to decree that the wholesale execution of Rou- 
manians must be suspended for the time, in order that 
His Apostolic Majesty might not incur the inconvenience 
of seeing the roads on which he passed lined with corpses ! 

Stubborn endurance has kept this Latin race pure. 
Separated from the mother country, many of these 
Roumanian exiles are of the finest type, intellectually, 
politically, economically, and have contributed numerous 
names distinguished in science, art and letters to Europe. 

1 A. W. Leeper, Justice of the Roumanian Cause. 



THE WOOF AND WARP OF HER DESTINY 127 



Like standard bearers they hold aloft the flag of their 
national culture amongst the alien and Slav races which 
surround them, 

They have waited long for redemption, for justice and 
the right to live. The years have taught them patience, 
and they will not waver or fail till the day of reunion 
and national resurrection comes. 

Cogalniceanu's stirring words, " We have the same 
origin as our brothers ; the same language, name and 
faith. In the past we have suffered the same grief and we 
now have to assure for ourselves the same future," are 
words of hope and determination which we free peoples of 
the British Empire can truly applaud and echo. For as 
England could never suffer her sons, or her soil, to languish 
under hated oppression, so let us hope that the hour of 
deliverance and reunion may not be long delayed for 
Roumania and her lost lands. 

# * * * 

Many countries, America, Italy and even Germany 
herself, have gradually developed from various and dis- 
tracted states into a homogeneous united nation ; so it is 
not unreasonable to hope that political co-operation 
strengthened by military union will eventually weld 
these several countries into a community of interest. 
Herein alone lies their true line of progress and only safe- 
guard. United they may stand and survive all perils. 
Divided they will surely fall. 

It must be evident that only by unity of interest and 
power can these States of Eastern Europe protect them- 
selves against the increasing intrigues of the Central 
Empires. The pacification of these near Eastern countries 
can only be secured by their own co-operation, and by the 



128 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 



granting to them of fundamental racial rights, the recog- 
nition of which is a supreme necessity for their peace and 
progress. jThe ancient provinces of Bessarabia, Transyl- 
vania, ana the Bukovina, peopled with Roumanians, j 
should be reunited to Roumania. To Serbia should be 
joined her lands of Bosnia, Herzegovina, Croatia and 
Slavonia ; and to Bulgaria that part of Macedonia dis- 
tinctly Bulgarian in blood. 

No lasting peace can come to Roumania and these 
storm-tossed Eastern States, ceaselessly subjected to the 
intrigue and covetousness of the aggressive Central 
Powers, jantil political boundaries, dependent on racial 
principles, are secured for them, t 

Just so long as these nations are divided from their 
brethren by arbitrary, artificial frontiers and remorseless 
tyranny, will there be unhappiness and bloodshed in the 
Balkans. 



CHAPTER VI 



THE GREAT DECISION 

I made the mistake of my career, when I had the opportunity, that 
I did not remove the Hohenzollerns from the throne of Prussia. As 
long as this house reigns and until the red cap of liberty is erected in 
Germany, there will be no peace in Europe. — Napoleon. 

THE two years that followed the declaration of 
the European War were the most momentous 
period in the history of Roumania. Though 
never a member of the Triple Alliance as Italy 
was, she had, it was surmised, certain engagements for 
defensive purposes ; but unlike Italy — whose pact was 
publicly acknowledged and ratified by successive Parlia- 
ments and people — Roumania's agreement remained a 
secret one, never revealed to the people or ratified by the 
Government, it having been more or less the work of the 
King, who had kept the foreign policy of his country 
largely in his own hands. 

Indeed, when Russia took Roumania's northern 
province of Bessarabia from her in 1812, a rapprochement 
with the Central Powers seemed the safest and only 
possible policy under the circumstances. 

Titu Maiorescu, writing in the Deutsche Revue — 1st 
January, 1881 — a much discussed article, advocated an 
orientation towards the Central Powers, and certainly 
several of the Conservatives as well as the Liberals of that 
day were in agreement with his principles. 
k 129 



130 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 

King Charles, after fostering for forty-eight years the 
closest political and economical rapprochement with 
Germany, believed that the interests of Roumania lay 
there. He felt sure of the victory of the Central Alliance 
and believed that Roumania would benefit by espousing 
its cause, while the land of his birth, so powerful in organ- 
ization and resources, was his model for all that he had 
dreamed, hoped and planned for his adopted country. 
But his people thought otherwise. 

An interesting sidelight into the secret history of this 
period is afforded in the letters of Count Czernin, Austria's 
Foreign Minister, who was Minister to the Roumanian 
capital in 1914 and 1915. He was a close friend and con- 
fidant of the Archduke Francis Ferdinand, on whom the 
Roumanians had fixed their hopes for an amelioration of 
the position of their brothers in Transylvania. His keen 
insight and sympathy with the racial difficulties of the 
Empire and his well-known hope of being able to secure 
some justice for them on his accession to the throne, had 
fired their expectations, which were overwhelmed when 
the terrible disaster at Serajevo occurred nearly four 
years ago, precipitating the present War. 

The famous Austrian Red Book shows in the following 
very interesting notes from Count Czernin's letters, how 
he tried to induce Roumania to join the Central Powers. 
He had received instructions from Count Berchtold, the 
Austrian Minister for Foreign Affairs, to communicate to 
the King and Roumanian Government the contents of 
the ultimatum Austria was sending to Serbia. 

The whole world knows the arbitrary and outrageous 
character of this ultimatum, which the unfortunate 
country was compelled to answer within forty-eight 



THE GREAT DECISION 



hours. It is also a matter of common knowledge that even 
if Serbia had accepted the ultimatum in its entirety, there 
was not the slightest intention on the part of Austria — 
backed by Germany — to stay the full measure of covetous 
vengeance which she had determined to inflict on her, 
and to destroy her status as an independent kingdom 
and reduce her to a state of vassalage. 

Austria-Hungary wanted, of course, to undo the Treaty 
of Bucharest, which left a greater Serbia and which had 
also definitely put a stop to the long cherished Austrian 
designs on Salonica. 

Accompanying the copy of the ultimatum Count 
Berchtold sent the following note to Count Czernin to 
present to King Charles in explanation of the ultimatum 
to Serbia : 

" The King knows how much love His Apostolic 
Majesty has for peace and the sense of his high responsi- 
bility. . . . Unhappily, there remains no hope of finding a 
pacific issue. 

" Austria-Hungary is not pursuing any selfish plan in 
Serbia, but she must defend her rights against a neighbour 
whose whole policy is to detach from the Monarchy her 
frontier population. This must be stopped. 

" We do not aim at any territorial aggrandisement in 
Servia, so we have to hope that, if war becomes necessary, 
it may be localised. 

" We expect from the King fidelity to treaties, and that 
in his high wisdom he will maintain Roumania in a state 
of strict neutrality. We ourselves, remembering our duty 
as Allies, will not undertake any decision touching 
Roumania's interests without coming to a prior under- 
standing with her. 



132 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 

" Should Russia adopt an aggressive attitude towards 
us, we should reckon upon the loyal co-operation of 
Roumania as being our Ally." 

In reply the King informed Count Czernin that he 
guaranteed Roumanian neutrality, and Count Czernin in 
his letter after the audience adds that if Russia inter- 
vened on the side of Serbia " We could, alas ! with diffi- 
culty reckon on the military intervention of Roumania." 

He continues : "I never saw the King so much moved 
as when he told me that if he followed the biddings of his 
heart, his army would march by the side of the Triple 
Alliance (Italy still officially belonged to it, not having 
yet seceded), but that he could not ; so many changes 
had happened in the year that it had become an impossi- 
bility for him to keep his engagements. Nevertheless, he 
begged me to let Your Excellency know that if Russia 
should enter the conflict, he would keep a strict neutral- 
ity ; no force in the world could oblige him to take arms 
against the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy." 

* * * * 

On August 5th, 1914, a Crown Council was summoned 
to the beautiful Palace at Sinaia, the summer resort of 
the Court in the Carpathians, facing the sinister Austrian 
frontier. Addressing his Ministers, King Carol earnestly 
argued for the validity of this convention. The Govern- 
ment protested that though it might exist, the treaty had 
never been ratified by Parliament, and one well-known 
statesman pointed out that neither he nor his colleagues 
had ever seen the text of the agreement, and that if it 
existed, the secret way in which it had been arrived at 
was contrary to all constitutional procedure, and to the 
general understanding that no treaties with foreign 



THE GREAT DECISION 



133 



States should be valid unless the sanction of both political 
parties had been obtained. 

The declaration of Italy's neutrality strengthened the 
opposition of the Government, which refused to consent 
to King Carol's contention that Roumania's interest as 
well as her honour was involved in intervention. The 
King, finding the Government firm, had to yield to the 
inevitable. Profoundly chagrined at the result, he 
remarked to the Council : " Gentlemen, you cannot 
realize how bitter it is to find oneself isolated in a country 
of which one is not a native." To which one of the most 
distinguished statesmen present replied : "In peace time 
it was possible for your Majesty to follow a policy con- 
trary to the sentiment of the country, but to make war 
in defiance of that sentiment is impossible." 

This famous Council, which was representative of all 
the political parties of the State, Cabinet Ministers, 
ex-Prime Ministers, Party Leaders, as well as distin- 
guished personages of independent position, voted by a 
large majority against intervention and declared in 
favour of neutrality. So greatly did King Carol take 
this decision to heart that at the conclusion of this 
historic conference he is reported to have said : " Gentle- 
men, you have acted no doubt according to what you con- 
sider the interests of your country, but you have destroyed 
my work of forty-six years." 

Reluctant to accept the decision — a definite and 
national one — he made a final appeal to the Army — which 
had been modelled on German lines and instructe d^by 
Prussian officers — but here also the vote by an over- 
whelming majority was definitely against the King's 
desire for intervention on the side of the Central Powers. 



134 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 

In one of his communiques to Baron Burian, Czernin 
admits that " Here they are only seeking to gain time till 
the European War has given results. If we are the con- 
querors, and this is the opinion of the King, Roumania 
will join us, but should fortune betray us, then the mot 
d'ordre " partition of the monarchy " will be raised again 
and Roumania will join our enemies ; but I believe the 
King would abdicate before he would consent to that. 
Finally, all depends on our success in the theatre of 
war." 

A month later, on September 19th, he wrote to Vienna : 
" The news of the retreat of our army has increased the 
desire to strike us a mortal blow. They are afraid of 
being too late in at the death of the monarchy. The King 
is the only brake left on the downgrade. Let us be patient 
and let the shouters yell. The first success we have 
against the Russians, all will be silent again/ ' 

The unhappy King, whose end was undoubtedly 
hastened by the position in which he found himself, in 
opposition to the wishes of his country, mortified and 
tormented by the failure to prove his sympathies with the 
Central Powers, and by the antagonistic demonstrations 
against Austria, remarked to Czernin in the last interval 
before his death, " I only wish to die, so that there may 
be an end of it all." 

Czernin, in describing his last visit to the dying 
Monarch, describes the state of mind of the unhappy 
King. " The fear of being obliged to fail in keeping his 
word, of committing a felony, of dishonouring himself 
in one word, was so odious that he appeared to be crushed 
by it. And the old man is alone." 



THE GREAT DECISION 135 



The country was at one with the Government in its 
declaration of neutrality. Though prosperous then, it 
was in no condition to rush into a war of such magnitude 9 
as~ATrrragedden pronxijieiL^be. It was abhorrent to the 
people that they should have to fight beside their here- 
ditary foe, the " accursed Magyar," the oppressor of their 
four million kinsmen. Their race, language, traditions, 
all were akin to the Latins — how could they fight against 
them ? 

The country was not prepared for war. Equipment 
and munitions were lacking, the frontier terribly long 
and difficult for defence. Owing to the secret under- 
standing between King Carol and Austria, his unbounded 
belief in Germany and confidence that war could never 
result with these Powers, the country found itself with 
few strategical railways, the nearest lateral one being at 
a distance of fifty miles from the frontier. No fortresses 
exist on the Roumanian frontier except those rude Nature 
had provided among the rocks of the Carpathians, while 
the Danube and the small flotilla of river monitors were 
the only protection to the south against Bulgarian attack. 

Another unfortunate result of King Carol's policy was 
that the Government had of late years imported from 
Germany virtually everything in the way of munitions 
and equipment for the army, so that at the outbreak of 
hostilities the country found itself completely unprovided 
with arsenals or munition factories. 

Meanwhile, the very large percentage of Germans 
engaged in the " peaceful commercial penetration " of 
the country launched out into a vigorous and determined 
campaign of political propaganda. 

Agency bureaux were started all over the land, large 



136 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 

sums of money being expended in circulating thousands 
of brochures and pamphlets glorifying the power and 
ideals of the Teutonic Alliance and disseminating the 
usual sensational German-made lies about the Entente. 
The pro-German politicians Carp and Marghiloman 
placed their influence with the Press at the disposition 
of the Central Powers. Carp's paper, Moldova, was un- 
compromisingly pro-German, but represented, neverthe- 
less, the opinion of a really sincere man. As for Marghilo- 
man, though not openly connected with a newspaper 
he had much influence, and his policy, a double-faced one, 
was to run with the hare and hunt with the hounds. 
German agents raked in, by dint of much bribery and 
vast expenditure, a great number of small provincial 
papers, in which they could circulate the falsehoods 
which it was too absurd to expect the intelligentsia of the 
big towns to believe. The organs of Filipescu and 
Take Jonescu — the valiant advocates of the Entente — 
and General Crainicianu, headed the counter-attack 
with great energy and decision. 

The campaign on the German side was conducted by 
Baron von dem Biissche, the German Minister at 
Bucharest, a typical Prussian, scheming, unscrupulous, 
and peculiarly imbued with the Prussian dogma that the 
end justifies the means. The Kaiser's policy during the 
past years had been to nurse carefully the Roumanian 
situation, and many distinguished German diplomatists 
had at one time or another been posted to the Roumanian 
capital, among them Kiderlein Wachter, Prince von 
Biilow and Marschall von Bieberstein, while Count 
Gulochowski, Prince Furstenberg and Count Aehrenthal 
had represented the Dual Monarchy. 



THE GREAT DECISION 137 

The German-subsidized Press was naturally supported 
by Berlin, and the most fallacious and grotesque mis- 
statements about Britain and her Allies were distributed 
daily. Any delay in negotiations was construed into 
treachery, and the " dreimal verdammte Englisch " were 
accused of every felony and sin. With pride the German 
agents pointed to the brotherly true-hearted interest, the 
j sympathetic attitude of the Central Powers, who lavishly 
\ expended money and gifts in bribing the nation— 4te 
flower-festooned brass-bedecked trains, the ' Carmen 
S^lva ' and the 1 Mercury/ that arrived in pomp and 
glor^Tite the Queen of Sheba, laden with precious gifts, 
toMie "grains of the band provided by the German 
Legation ! 

/ It strikes one as the more astonishing and admirable 
/ that notwithstanding such a shameless and insidious 
propaganda the bulk of the nation resisted, and remained 
\ true to the national ideals,, closing their ears to the lure of 
the German sirens weighted with gold. 

The death of King Carol in October, 1914, followed very 
shortly afterwards by that of his old adviser and states- 
man, Demetrius Sturdza, removed two of the strongest 
pro-German forces for intervention. He was succeeded 
by his nephew, Prince Ferdinand of Hohenzollern, who 
on the death of King Carol's only child in 1875 had 
come to Roumania and been nominated the heir- 
apparent. 

Few thrones are secure in these democratic days, and 
those of the Near East, unstable at all times, are doubly 
so at the present, when the republican spirit is blowing 
so fiercely over Europe and dynasties are tottering before 
its" chilly breath, 



138 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 



The only Balkan dynasty that is rooted in the soil is 
that of Serbia, the others are all of exotic origin ; but 
King Ferdinand has shown himself a true Roumanian 
and a constitutional monarch of the very highest type. 
Simple, straightforward, and sincere, he has none of the 
blatant braggadocia of the Kaiser or the tinsel flamboy- 
ance of his furtive and treacherous neighbour, Ferdinand 
"the Coburger," King of Bulgaria. King Ferdinand of 
Roumania is conspicuously endowed with a spirit of lofty 
patriotism, deep regard for his people, and above all with 
a profound sense of his duty to the nation. 
s*s During 1915 popular Irredente opinion made many 
successful counter attacks against the German Press, but 
I Bratiano, the Prime Minister, held his hand, and adopted 
I a policy of " Wait and see," which earned for himself 
the name of the " Sphinx " in the general opinion of 
Europe. 

/~In April, 1915, it was proposed to Roumania that she 
should discuss matters with the Cabinet at Petrograd. 
/After an informal conference, it was agreed that in return 
for her neutrality she should be allowed her claim to the 
" countries inhabited by the Roumanians of Austro- 
Hungary," the stipulation being that she should occupy 
Transylvania " par les armes," before the conclusion of 
the war. These tentative negotiations did not develop 
very quickly, and in June Austria became restive and is 
alleged to have made an offer to Roumania of the Buko- 
vina and a guarantee of the most satisfactory treatment 
\ of the Roumanians in Transylvania, if in return she 
would intervene on their side. Germany added the lure 
of Bessarabia. These offers synchronized with the 
advance of the German armies eastwards, Mackensen 



THE GREAT DECISION 139 

having entered Przemysl and Bohm Ermolli Lemberg. 
It seemed the moment of triumph for the pro-German 
interventionalists. ^ But public opinion, as well as that of 
the Government, was suspicious of the honourable in- 
tentions of the Central Powers. Bethmann-Hollweg's 
and the Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin's contempt for 
treaties — " mere scraps of paper " — had deprived German 
assurances of all reliability, and Germany was generally 
regarded as like the old Irishwoman who remarked that 
" she had too much consideration for the truth to be 
dragging her out on every occasion." The offers were 
refused. 

Bratiano's reluctance to take such a momentous 
decision cannot be wondered at under the circumstances. 
Greatly though the country desired to come to the aid of 
Serbia and to collaborate with Venizelos in his desire for 
intervention, there was the treacherous spirit of the 
Greek King and General Staff to be reckoned with. The 
heroic but disastrous Dardanelles campaign could afford 
them no prospect of help in that direction, while they 
feared the Western Powers might only be able to give 
them " diplomatic " assistance. Roumania had only 
enough ammunition for a campaign of three months, and 
the various Powers, uncertain of how she would decide, 
showed a reluctance in providing her with the necessary 
equipment, while her long frontier, surrounded by 
German, Austrian, Turkish and Bulgar troops, rendered 
her liable to complete military isolation. 

The circumstances demanded the most cautious policy 
or she would have found herself in the position of a bee 
in a wasps' nest, and Bratiano, with the tragic desolation 
of Belgium and Serbia before his eyes, and the bloody 



140 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 

revenge the Central Powers would exact in case of defeat, 
must be excused for hesitating to embark his country in 
warlike adventure before it was adequately equipped 
and every guarantee for support given him. But the 
principal consideration lay in the field of international 
policy. 

Bulgaria's reputation for perfidy, and her equivocal 
attitude, rendered it essential at the outset to have a 
clear understanding with her before Roumania could 
shape her policy. The cession of a small portion of the 
Dobrudja, the district of Silistria, to Roumania on the 
conclusion of the Balkan War, at the Treaty of Bucharest, 
had been the fine inflicted on Bulgaria for her treachery 
in turning on her Allies. It seemed the only solution at 
the time for establishing again a balance of power, but it 
was generally recognized as not entirely satisfactory, a 
pis alter for the moment. It was also evident to the 
Roumanian statesmen that in the event of participation 
in the war the advantage of Bulgarian neutrality, or her 
intervention on the side of the Entente, was of the first 
importance, and Bucharest realized that no friendly 
relations could be hoped for until the settlement of the 
Dobrudja awarded Roumania at the Treaty of Bucharest 
was revised, and that it was advisable, in order to further 
the general cause of the Allies, to offer to restore to 
Bulgaria some part of the Dobrudja if Greece and Serbia 
would also contribute some share of Serbian or Greek 
Macedonia. But the inherent rapacity of the Bulgar was 
not content with such small bait. His fantastic and 
exaggerated claims produced a deadlock, which the weak 
and hesitating diplomacy of the Entente only served to 
strengthen. 



THE GREAT DECISION 



141 



Another important point to be considered was the 
promise to Russia of the Straits. This being Roumania's 
sole outlet to the Mediterranean it was of paramount 
importance that she should be assured of security and 
free rights of access for her maritime commerce on an 
equal footing with Russia. 

* * * * 

In the early autumn of 1915 three great events occurred 
which placed Roumania in a critical position. Bulgaria 
under its Magyar-Bourbon king — whom his French 
relatives called, with contemptuous disdain, " the pedlar " 
— this pinchbeck despot, a combination of poltroonery, 
abhorrent habits, and base duplicity, after haggling with 
the opposing Powers in vulgar bagman spirit, mobilized 
his armies on the Roumanian and Serbian frontiers. The 
shifty intrigues of his spiritual brother, Constantine of 
Greece, another " puppet king " — a tyrant at home and 
the pliant tool of his country's enemies abroad — had 
compelled that great patriot Venizelos to resign. Lastly, 
after more than a year of wonderful fighting, Belgrade, 
" the white city " — now red with the blood of her valiant 
defenders — was occupied by the Teutonic forces. 

Intense excitement prevailed in Bucharest, and a big 
demonstration of the people demanded immediate inter- 
vention to save Serbia and to realize the Greater Roumania 
which was to free their exiled brethren beyond the 
border. 

Filipescu and Jonescu, the pro-Entente leaders, work- 
ing with extraordinary energy, their wonderful brains 
and marvellous gifts of oratory engaged in combating the 
unashamed and pernicious flow of Germanophile propa- 
ganda, called on Bratiano in a stirring manifesto to reform 



142 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 

the Cabinet. They urgently "demanded what Republi- 
can France has obtained, national union. Men of all parties 
and men attached to no parties — let them unite, even the 
Liberals, and form a government which should have no 
other care than for the interests of the land " — continuing, 
" We ought respectfully to address ourselves to the King, 
and say to him, ' Sire, give us sacred union.' " Jonescu 
furthered the appeal by calling upon the King to prove 
himself " the best of Roumanians," urging that the 
dynasty would only be strong " when it has its roots this 
side of the Carpathians. ..." 

But the difficulties in the way of intermediate inter- 
vention were still unsurmountable. " We march as soon 
as we have the munitions," such was Bratiano's assurance. 
Support for the northern and southern frontiers was also 
asked for, and it was stipulated that an increase in the 
force at Salonica and an offensive there should be timed 
at Roumania's intervention, in order to draw off the full 
force of the Bulgar forces, who would at once attack the 
Roumanian frontier. This demand was of the utmost 
necessity and was one of Roumania's paramount conditions, 
for this co-operation was vitally necessary. 

La Roumania writes in May, 1916, " The Roumanians 
only await a sign from Salonica to cross the Carpathians." 
Roumania's territorial demands were entirely confined 
to the redemption of her race in exile, and she did not 
propose to declare war on either Germany or Bulgaria. 

But this course was impracticable, and Germany, 
trembling for her cherished Berlin to Bagdad scheme and 
apprehensive of her partner's weakening powers, would 
not stand aside. 



THE GREAT DECISION 



143 



Events were moving rapidly. Roumania stood on 
the edge of the precipice. The great flood swirling 
beneath her was swollen and foaming a crimson hue 
with the blood of the millions fighting for their lives 
among the sharks. 

Ready to come to their assistance Roumania stood 
stripped, and waiting for the call to plunge into the 
vortex. . . . Excitement in the capital was at fever heat. 
Baron von dem Biissche, the German Minister, had 
begged for an audience, and when received by the King 
a dramatic scene occurred. Von dem Biissche, in great 
agitation and with tears in his eyes, had implored the 
King not to depart from neutrality, declaring that a 
Hohenzollern could not make war on a Hohenzollern. To 
which the King had answered, that he was first and fore- 
most King of Roumania, and must follow the national 
will. 

A Crown Council was summoned by King Ferdinand 
for the following morning, August 26th, to-be held at the 
charming old Palace of Cotroceni, standing in its peaceful 
woods without the city. The whole population was on 
the tiptoe of excitement, crowds filling the streets and 
watching anxiously the ministers as they whirled past 
in their cars towards the Palace. 

At ten o'clock the King entered the Council Chamber, 
and as President received the Assembly of Ministers and 
Statesmen. A moment of tense silence preceded his 
declaration. With white face but unfaltering voice, he 
informed them that the moment had arrived to liberate 
their suffering kinsmen in Transylvania, and that he had 
convened the Assembly for the purpose of ascertaining 
their desire as to the declaration of war. Repeating the 



144 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 

O | ■ 

phrase he had used to Von dem Bussche, he stated that he 
would abide by the decision of the majority. The Germano- 
l phile members raised no objection, saying that if war 
was declared, they would give their full support to the 
Government, and the decision was carried with only 
three dissentient votes. 

The King declared an immediate state of war to exist 
between Roumania and Austria-Hungary. . . . 

With deep emotion, but in accents of great conviction, 
he exclaimed : " May Roumania conquer her enemies, 
as I have conquered myself." Great words indeed, 
\> suited to a supreme crisis. The die had been cast. 

* * * * 

The Council was followed by stirring appeals by the 
King to his army and the nation. The first was as 
follows : — 

" Soldiers, I have called you to bear your standards 
beyond the frontiers, where our brothers await you im- 
patiently, their hearts full of hope. The shades of the 
great Voivodes, Michael the Brave and Stephen the Great, 
whose mortal remains rest in the lands you go to deliver, 
will lead you to victory as worthy successors of the 
soldiers who were victorious at Rasboieni, Calugareni, 
and at Plevna. You will fight by the side of the great 
nations to whom we are united. A desperate struggle 
awaits you. You will support its weight, and with God's 
help victory will be ours. Show yourselves worthy of the 
glory of your ancestors. Throughout the ages a whole 
people will bless you and sing your praises." 

To the nation, King Ferdinand appealed in the accents 
of a lofty patriotism : — 



THE GREAT DECISION 145 

" Roumanians ! 
'■' The war, which now for two years has hemmed in our 
frontiers more and more closely, has shaken the old 
foundations of Europe and shown that henceforth it is 
solely on a national foundation that the peaceful life of 
its peoples can be assured. It has brought this day, 
which has been awaited for centuries by the national 
conscience : the day of the union of the Roumanian race. 
After interminable centuries of misfortune and cruel trials 
our ancestors succeeded in founding the Roumanian State, 
through the union of the Principalities, through the 
War of Independence, and through indefatigable labour 
from the national renaissance. To-day, it is given to us 
to assure unshakably and in its fulness the work realized 
for the moment by Michael the Brave : the union of the 
Roumanians on both sides of the Carpathians. It is on us 
that it depends to-day to deliver from foreign domination 
our brothers beyond the mountains and the lands of 
Bukovina, where Stephen the Great sleeps his eternal 
sleep. It is in us, in the virtues of the race, in our gallantry 
that lives the powerful force which will give them once 
more the right to prosper in peace, in conformity with the 
customs and the aspirations of our common race, in a 
complete and free Roumania, from the Theiss to the 
sea. 

" We Roumanians, animated by the sacred duty which 
weighs on us, are resolved like men to confront all the 
sacrifices inseparable from a bitter war. We set forth for 
the struggle with the enthusiasm of a people which has 
unshakable faith in its destinies. 

" The glorious fruits of victory will be our recompense. 

" With the help of God— forward ! " 



146 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 

Roumania had crossed the rubicon. The first blast of 
the war clarion was summoning her armies to the grim 
Carpathian ranges, and the new Ally had joined the ranks 
of European chivalry in arms. 

" Hark ! I hear the tramp of thousands, 
And of armed men the hum ; 
Lo ! a nation's hosts have gathered 
Round the quick alarming drum, — 

Saying ' Come, 

Freemen, come ! 
Ere your heritage be wasted/ said the quick alarming drum." 



PART II 

TO-DAY 



CHAPTER VII 



FROM MY SOUL TO THEIRS 
By H.M. the Queen of Rotimania 

THE trains are passing, passing — and the cargo 
they are hurrying thither is the youth of 
our country, the hope of our homes. By 
thousands they are massed together, they 
sit on the roofs of the waggons, they hang on to their 
sides, they balance themselves in perilous positions, 
but all of them are gay — they shout, they sing, they 
laugh. 

And the trains pass, pass — all day the trains pass. 
With hands full of flowers, we hurry to the stations ; 
our hearts are heavy, we long to say words they will 
remember, to tell them what we feel, but their voices 
raised in chorus drown all we would say. 

One cry is on every lip when they see me : " We are 
going ! Going gladly, going to victory, so that you may 
become Empress, Empress of all the Roumanians ! " 
There is hardly a voice that does not say it, it is 
the cry of every heart, they hope it, they believe it, 
they mean it to be, and I smile back at them offer- 
ing them my flowers which they clutch at with eager 
hands. 

And thus the trains pass — pass. 

* * * * 



149 



150 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 

One evening the sun was going down in glowing glory, 
turning all it shone over into glittering gold — I was late, 
other duties having kept me back, the train I had come 
to greet was already moving away. 

In joyous crowds the young soldiers thronged the 
carriages ; others had been before me to deck their caps, 
their tunics, even their horses and cannons with bright 
violet asters of every shade. The prodigious radiance of 
sunset fell over all those flowers, enhancing their beauty, 
as though even the heavens were doing their utmost to 
render more blessed the departure of those eager boys 
who so gaily were going to death. 

Hurriedly I ran towards the moving carriages, dis- 
tressed at being late. A great shout mounted from a 
thousand throats as they recognized me, and a shower of 
flowers fell at my feet. 

From their caps, their tunics, their cannons, they tore 
away the flowers that had been given them to shower 
them over their Queen, whilst the usual chorus mounted 
to the skies : " May you become Empress ! Empress of 
all the Roumanians/ ' 

And always more flowers fell over me, my arms were 
full, my hands could hardly hold them, the ground was 
purple where I stood. 

Long did I remain there after the train had dis- 
appeared. A trail of smoke against the orange sky 
alone marked its passage, and all those fading flowers at 
my feet. 

As one looks at the incomprehensible, I gazed at those 
two long rails running into the infinite, there seeming to 
join their separate ways, and wondered towards what 
Fate those youths were hurrying, wondered if their 



FROM MY SOUL TO THEIRS 



dream would be realized, especially I wondered how 
many would come back. 

The sun had set, the smoke had dissolved into nothing, 
the voices of my soldiers were but a remembrance, 
Slowly I turned my foot towards home. 

All day long I have been moving amongst the wounded, 
wandering from ward to ward — they all want me to come 
amongst them, each soldier desires to see his Queen. 

Never do I leave a call unanswered, everywhere do I 
go, no sight is too sad, no fatigue too great, no way too 
long, but sometimes it is to me as though I were wander- 
ing through some never-ending dream. 

Bed beside bed they lie there, and all eyes meet me, 
follow me, consume me ; never before have I known 
what it means to be the prey of so many eyes — they 
seem to be drawing my heart from my bosom, to be a 
weight I can hardly bear ! 

I bend over suffering faces, clasp outstretched hands, 
lay my ringers upon heated brows, gaze into dying eyes, 
listen to whispered words — and everywhere the same 
wish follows me : " May you become Empress, Empress 
of all the Roumanians." Stiffening lips murmur it to me, 
hopeful voices cry it out to me, it goes with me wherever 
I move : " What matter our suffering as long as you 
become Empress ; Empress of all the Roumanians ! " 
Infinitely touching are the words when they mount 
towards me from the beds of so many wounded, who see 
in me the realization, the incarnation of the dream for 
which they are giving their lives. 

It makes me feel so small, so humble before their stoic 
endurance ; tears come to my eyes, and yet because of 
the beauty of it, I have a great wish to thank God. 



152 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 

Why should I be chosen to represent an ideal, why 
should just I be the symbol ? What right have I to stand 
above them, to buy glory with the shedding of their 
blood ? 

And always more tenderly do I pass from bed to bed. 
* * * * 

That was at a time when hope still sang in every soul, 
when in the first enthusiasm all hearts beat in unison, 
when belief in glorious victory gladdened the day. 

But much later under widely different circumstances 
in quite another place, the same words were said to me 
by one who could not see my face, for that morning he 
had been trepanned, his bandaged head was lying in a 
pool of blood. 

Someone told him that his Queen was beside him, that 
she had come to see him, to enquire about his sufferings, 
to help him if he needed help. 

A groping hand was stretched out towards me. I took 
it in mine, whispering words of comfort, bending low 
towards the parched Hps that were murmuring something 
that at first I could not understand. The man had no face, 
no eyes, all was swathed in blood-stained cloths. Then 
as though from very far came the words, the same brave 
words : " May the Great God protect you, may he let 
you live to become Empress — Empress of all the Rou- 
manians ! " 

It was to me as though something very wonderful had 
quite suddenly descended upon the distress of my soul, 
something very holy, very beautiful, but that was al- 
most more than I could bear. Touching had been that 
wish when hope shone before us like a star, but now it 
was more than touching, it was grand and sacred, for it 



FROM MY SOUL TO THEIRS 



153 



was pronounced at an hour when darkest disaster had 
overthrown our land, when inch by inch our armies were 
retreating before the all-invading foe. There in that 
chamber of suffering those dying lips still spoke of the 
hope they clung to, of the Dream, that in spite of 
sacrifice, death and misery, one day must surely come 
true. 

That dying man was but one of many, a voice out of 
the unknown, a martyr without a name ; but his words 
had gone home to my heart. As I bent over him, laying 
my hand gently upon his crimson-stained rags, I prayed 
to God to listen to his wish, prayed that the blood of 
so many humble heroes should not be given in vain, 
prayed that when the great hour of liberation should 
sound at last, an echo of the shout of victory that that 
day would sound all over our land, should reach the 
heart of this nameless one beyond the Shadow into 
which he was sinking, so that even beyond the grave 
he should still have a share in the glory his living eyes 
were not destined to see, 



THE COMING OF SPRING 

Spring is coming ! The snow is melting, the air is full 
of sounds of life ! Like a warm promise the sun smiles 
down upon those who long to hope. How is it possible 
not to hope when the grass is sprouting and the birds 
beginning to build their nests ? 

Like a hideous nightmare that on awakening we leave 
behind us with the darkness of night, this winter that 
had thrown its chains about us retreats ever further as 
we go forward into the growing light, 



154 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 

It is to me as though I saw many faces, with different 
expressions all turned towards this resurrection of light. 
Tired faces, suffering faces, faces with eyes that have 
looked closely at death- — but beside them, there are also 
the faces of children and other faces, of those who can 
smile, of those who can hope and of those who can 
forget. 

Even into the most hidden corners does the new light 
carry its message of hope. Out of dank, dark hovels 
miserable creatures crawl forth to stare with wonder at 
the sun, for so long had he forgotten to shine upon those 
whose sufferings can only be equalled by the patience 
with which those sufferings were borne. The mud and 
filth of their surroundings become less sordid ; I have 
seen ghostly faces lifted towards the skies as though 
some great joy were hiding behind the clouds. Even the 
beggar's outstretched hand seems to be extended rather 
towards the growing warmth than towards the scarce 
coin thrown to him by those hurrying by. 

But above all it is the faces of our soldiers that I 
seem to see, of those quiet, uncomplaining heroes who 
more than any other have suffered from the winter's 
snows. 

I see them at daybreak in their far-off trenches, 
gazing at the sun that each morning rises a little earlier 
to announce to them that cold and frost and endless 
night will soon be a thing of the past. I see their eyes 
that have that special expression of those who are accus- 
tomed to watch, who are closely acquainted with danger, 
who have buried many a comrade and who have over- 
come every fear. Steady eyes, like the eyes of eagles, 
accustomed to contemplate horizons a great way off. 



FROM MY SOUL TO THEIRS 



155 



What is he thinking of, that silent sentry leaning on 
his gun ? Was he perhaps in happier days a shepherd 
faithfully guarding his flock ? Or was he a peaceful 
labourer who at dusk returned to the children he loved ? 
Has he a vision of his village where his cottage lies hidden 
beneath fruit trees just bursting into bud ? Is it per- 
chance in a far-off region which the enemy has overrun, 
and as he looks at the sun rising over the mountain, is he 
wondering who has care of those he left unprotected, 
who feeds them, who clothes them, who dries their tears ? 
Perhaps he has an old, old mother who each evening 
comes out to sit on her doorstep in the vague hope of 
seeing him come back. Spring is coming ! Who will 
till his field, sow his maize, feed his oxen ? Who will 
tread the path leading to his home, who will knock at 
his door ? Spring is coming ! The woods will soon be 
full of tiny blue flowers which his children will gather 
into bunches, but the flowers will wither, for the village 
is deserted, no one is passing that way. 

Spring is coming ! And still other faces do I see turned 
towards its growing light and the hope that it brings. 
These are also the faces of soldiers, but thin, emaciated, 
pale as death, the faces of those who have stood every 
hardship and who after long weeks of illness are slowly 
creeping back to life. These are the faces with which I 
am best acquainted, which I have hunted up in desolate 
corners where many dread to go, faces over which I have 
bent in place of the old, old mother who every evening 
on her doorstep patiently waits in vain. 

With parched lips these lonely sufferers have spoken 
to me about their homes, about their children, about the 
wives they long to see. They have clung to my hands 



156 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 

and kissed them, they have called me " mother," begging 
for tidings of their loved ones, begging for consolation — 
begging for hope. And I have endeavoured to comfort 
them, feeling that my words had more meaning when the 
sun shone brightly without. 

* * * * 

Over there it is also spring-time ! Over there in the 
regions we have lost. The sun will be shining, the birds 
will be singing as though no mighty spirit of Death had 
passed over the earth. 

Yet over there ! In spite of sunshine and the calling 
voices of spring, this year our Roumanian soil will have a 
tragic awakening — our blessed Roumanian soil ! When 
the plough of the stranger will tear it asunder, forcing it 
to bring forth fruit for the hated foe, a cry of anguish will 
rise from its depth, a cry of protest, a cry of despair, and 
its banished children will hear it and understand its 
meaning ! Their hearts will thrill with the holy desire to 
free it from bondage, to save it from the humiliation of 
having to give forth its riches to feed those who torture 
its women, starve its children, burn its villages and cast a 
shadow over its name. 

Yet, indeed, blessed art thou, oh Roum anian soil ! 
Thy bounteousness has no limit ; like an all-loving 
mother dost thou give, and art always ready to give 
again ; the smallest seed entrusted to thy bosom, a 
hundredfold brings forth its fruit, and if thy weeds are 
nearly as plenteous as thy flowers, it is just because thy 
generosity is so great. 

Have no fear, oh soil of Roumania ! Thy children 
will come and free thee from thy chains ! It is the message 
they send thee with the awakening voices of spring ! 



FROM MY SOUL TO THEIRS 



157 



They will not weaken, they will not tremble before the 
struggle that still has to be. Deeply hast thou drunk of 
their blood, but they are ready that deeply thou shouldst 
drink again if with the sacrifice of their lives, they can 
buy back thy freedom and drive the enemy away from 
the land ! 

And if it were not to free the living that thy 
children would come, it would be to free the dead, 
it would be to free thy graves — thy many uncounted 
graves. 

Never shall we know where they all lie, those brave 
sons of thine who by thousands have died. We can only 
pray that thou shouldst not weigh too heavily upon 
them and that within thy bosom their rest should be 
sweet. 

Far and wide, scattered in all four corners of the land, 
silent and uncomplaining, they lie in graves that are 
marked by no crosses, in places that have no names. 

They lie waiting, and they are not impatient, so sure 
are they that we shall come back. 

When I was young, quite young, a beautiful dream did 
I cherish : I dreamed of planting gardens wherever I 
went, wishing that nothing but flowers should mark the 
places where I had passed. As I grew older that dear 
dream vanished with many vanishing dreams, reality 
called me and few gardens had I leisure to plant. 

Now, should I ever return, it would be upon those 
nameless graves that I would sow my flowers, upon those 
thousands and thousands of graves where our heroes he 
hearkening for the tramp of our returning armies : those 
would then be my gardens, my holy gardens — the 
gardens I would love. 



158 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 

Like my other dream, this dream may never come true 
— but as this year I am a helpless exile, I think that per- 
haps God himself will remember our dead and sow flowers 
on their graves ! 

Spring is coming ! Therefore surely, surely will God 
sow His own flowers upon the graves of our dead. 



CHAPTER VIII 



ACROSS THE BARRIER 

Whatever they may tell you, believe that one fights with cannon 
as with fists ; when once the fire is begun the least want of ammuni- 
tion renders what you have already done useless. — Napoleon. 

The riches of a State I take to be the number, fidelity and affection 
of its Allies. — Demosthenes. 

- ^1 

ROUMANIAN declaration of war was presented | 
to the Austrian Government in Vienna at< 
eight o'clock on Sunday evening, August 27th,! 
^1916. 

The same hour saw the twilight of a wonderful summer 
day falling softly over the woods and mountains among 
which lies Sinaia, the beautiful country resort of 
the Court, and the diplomatic and social world of 
Bucharest. Lying under the shadow of Mount Sinaia, 
among the woods, streams and verdant valleys, knee- 
deep in wildflowers, it is one of the most beautiful spots 
in Eastern Europe. Round the old Greek Orthodox 
monastery, built by Michael Cantacuzene in the fifteenth 
century, and its magnificent Byzantine church, a modern 
town of beautiful villas and country estates has grow r n up. 
A little below the monastery stands the stately Royal 
Palace, Castel Peles, with its magnificent background of 
woods and lofty moutain -peaks, and its rare collection of 
pictures and treasures within. 

The gay crowd had spent the day in eager anticipation 
and discussion of the rumour that a momentous decision 



159 



i6o ROUMANIA i YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 

had been taken. Mothers with fighting sons spoke little, 
carrying brave faces and anxious eyes ; the men, eager and 
excited, talked fast and furiously as they dined in the fine 
villas, listened to the music, played bridge, or gambled 
in the gay little Casino. 

Suddenly the roar of cannon broke the stillness of the 
mountain air, wrecking the gay chatter and laughter of 
the room and causing that terrible throb of excitement, 
that fluttering of the heart which presages the great 
moments of destiny. Boom — boom ! — the dull roar 
sounded from the Carpathian ranges only fifteen miles 
away. . . . Boom — boom ! — they echoed . . . and re- 
echoed fainter in the rocky gorges and glens beyond ! 

Within an hour the ominous thunder had changed the 
bright frivolity of the gay world to a scene of hurried, 
feverish, anxious preparation and flight to Bucharest. 
Carriages, motors, carts, piled up with valuables and 
packed with people rolled down the winding roads from 
the hills to the plains and on to the capital. 

The station was soon a jostling mass of people, who 
crowded on to the trains like swarming bees ; lying on 
the roofs of the carriages, sitting on the steps, on the 
buffers, on any ledge to which they could cling. Villas 
were hurriedly closed, and precious things that could not 
be taken away were buried in the gardens. Only the 
gamblers still lingered round the green tables, reluctant 
to leave the magnetism of the ball of chance for the 
mighty ball of war that had already begun to spin, and 
the croupier was even now raking in his harvest of carnage 
and death. 

All through the night energetic workers were hurriedly 
converting the Casino, and other buildings in this ville 



ACROSS THE BARRIER 161 



de plaisir et de beaute, one of Europe's beauty spots, 
into Red Cross hospitals for the reception of the 
wounded. . . . 

All through the night the long trains rumbled through 
the valley to the frontier, packed with troops. ... All 
through the night the mountains reverberated to the 
mighty diapason of the guns, echoing to the distant peaks 
and valleys far away, rousing all Roumania to the great 
call : To Arms ! To Arms ! 

For Roumania had decided in favour of an advance 
into Transylvania, which stood a vast salient into terri- 
tory for the liberation of which she had taken up arms. 
By the early hours of the morning several of the Car- 
pathian passes were already in the hands of the Rou- 
manian army and an energetic offensive was in progress. 
* * * * 

The time has not yet arrived to discuss the political 
and diplomatic reasons which determined the moment of 
Roumania's intervention, but one can assume that 
intervention had become a military necessity as much 
for the cause of the Allies as for her own security. 

The decision to enter Transylvania — the real aim and 
object of her intervention — was no doubt akin to the 
original ardent desire of the French in August, 19 14 — to 
reclaim Alsace and Lorraine, and the national and senti- 
mental aims of Roumania counted for much in the decision. 

As to the wisdom of the decision (that governed the 
Roumanian General Staff in launching the Transylvanian 
offensive), Roumania hoped, like the rest of the Allies, 
that Brussiloff 's offensive would go far. In the Bukovina, 
on her North-Eastern frontier, Lechitsky's armies had 
been greatly reduced, and the Central Powers were mass- 

M 



162 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 

ing forces for a vigorous offensive. Roumania realized 
that if this offensive proved successful and the army of 
Brussilof's left was turned, that the road to Bessarabia 
would be open to the Germans, and Roumania, isolated 
and cut off from Russia, would be at the mercy of the 
" chivalrous and honourable " Central Powers, without 
having struck a blow. 

Added to this, the recent disclosures of the Machiavel- 
lian plans of the Russian pro-German Stuermer Govern- 
ment in Petrograd have demonstrated beyond question, 
that what almost amounted to an ultimatum was 
despatched by Russia to the Roumanian Government, 
insisting on their intervention and an offensive on the 
Transylvanian frontier. 

Some Western critics were strongly of opinion that her 
true strategy at the opening of hostilities was to strike 
south, and cut the communications between the Central 
Powers and their Eastern Allies, Bulgaria and Turkey. 
Had she been fully assured of complete support and been 
able to avail herself of forces larger and better equipped 
than she actually possessed, she might have been able to 
accomplish this with the probable effect of shortening the 
war. But indeed her resources and small army could not 
have permitted her alone to undertake this alternative 
strategical plan of crossing the Danube, marching to 
Sofia, and cutting the line of communication between 
Berlin and Constantinople. 

She certainly had assurances of support from Salonica, 
but they did not materialize. Russia, though promising 
her two hundred thousand men, never sent any till weeks 
afterwards, and she had neither the forces nor artillery 
sufficient to hold the immensely long line of her Car- 




ACROSS THE BARRIER 163 

pathian frontier and its many passes, while alone she 
embarked in adventures south. 

As regards the Dobrudja or Danubian frontier facing 
Bulgaria, Russia had assured her that there was little to 
fear from Bulgaria, as the latter would never be willing 
to fight against her Slav mother Russia. 

It seems incredible that anyone could have put faith 
in the traitorous character of the Bulgarian, or in the 
crafty scheming fox who occupies the throne, and who 
was using the negotiations between his Government and 
the Roumanian Minister at Sofia regarding neutrality 
as a pretence to gain time for his attack, using these 
diplomatic manoeuvres in true Teutonic style as a cloak 
to conceal the dagger beneath. 

But the Prime Minister Bratiano, strange to say, did not 
believe in the duplicity of the Bulgarian Government, and 
thought it possible to avoid war. Thus a grave political 
miscalculation determined the course of the campaign. 

The element of surprise counted considerably in the 
first great successes for the Roumanian Army. She was 
able to throw her forces well over the Carpathians, cross- 
ing at eighteen points, and to penetrate deep into the 
enemy's country before the latter could assemble in force, 
even had the latter had at her disposal sufficient men and 
material to release from her other fronts for this purpose — 
a condition the Allies did not believe to be possible. Of 
the four Roumanian armies, the third, under General 
Asian, was left to watch the Bulgarian frontier, while the 
other three — the first, under General Culcer ; the second, 
under General Averescu, and the fourth, under General 
Presan — were to operate on the Carpathians. 

During the first few weeks the Roumanians made a 



164 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 

rapid advance, all opposition being overcome. The 
Central Powers had been taken by surprise, and had as 
yet no time to bring up reinforcements to arrest the 
victorious march forward, since the elan of the Rou- 
manian troops was at its highest, fighting as they were 
now on what was once their own territory, and where 
their kinsmen are held under the iron hand of the Magyar. 

The Czech regiments sent to oppose these Roumanian 
units simply walked right over to them, so glad were 
they to join those fighting against the Magyar tyrants — 
" The Prussians " of the Dual Monarchy ; and indeed 
as a Deputy said in the Hungarian Parliament, " they 
just disappeared without anyone being able to say where 
they went ! " 

The Tornos, the Tolgyes and the Rothen Turm passes 
were in turn forced, the railways and frontier towns 
occupied, and the Roumanian Army was debouching 
into the wide country of rolling hills and valleys— the 
well-loved land — while Hermannstadt was being menaced . 

It was a triumphant success, and the hopes of the little 
nation beat high. But their slender forces, in a country 
both mountainous and difficult and covering a frontier 
of no less than three hundred miles, were widely separated, 
making it hard to establish communications. It must be 
remembered they had not yet reached the river Maros, 
which in itself would have given them a position of com- 
parative security. 

The enemy meanwhile with furious energy and aided 
by his splendid railway system was preparing a deadly 
counter-stroke, of which the Roumanians with their 
limited and scattered aeroplane service were unable to 
gauge either the extent or full importance. 



ACROSS THE BARRIER 



It was at this moment that the risky nature of the 
strategic plan began to make itself felt. Bulgaria had 
held her hand until Mackensen, who was in the Balkan 
area, had been able to make his military preparations 
and assume command of the armies on the Bulgarian 
frontier. Within five days of Roumania's declaration 
the Slav Judas, Ferdinand of Coburg, ruler of Bulgaria, 
had once again sold his honour and declared war on 
Roumania and on his country's liberator Russia. General 
Jostoff, the Chief of the Bulgarian Staff, a man of 
patriotism and honour, who was strongly opposed to the 
German domination of his country, was, following the 
notorious Enver Bey tradition, ' removed,' his body 
being found riddled with bullets. Such indeed are the 
rewards for men of this stamp in countries where Germany 
teaches ' Kultur ' ! 

* * * * 

Mackensen was the first to strike. Massing his troops 
with great speed he fell on the scattered Roumanian 
forces defending the fortresses of Turtukai, and Silistria 
in the Dobrudja, the reduction of which would open the 
way for a quick advance to the great bridge and railway 
over the Danube at Cernavoda, linking the port of Con- 
stanza with the capital. Turtukai, though defended by 
fortifications, had been left with a very inadequate number 
of troops. The utmost gallantry was displayed by the 
defenders, who were seriously handicapped and at a most 
serious disadvantage on account of a superiority in men 
and guns which the enemy possessed. Though vigorously 
contesting every inch of ground under the most terrific 
fire, and repulsing the enemy again and again, they were 
eventually overwhelmed, and the fortress fell on the 



166 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 



6th September, just ten days after Roumania's entering 
into the war. 

This was a very serious reverse for Roumania, as the 
fortress covered the crossing of the Danube. On the 
Bulgarian side the river bank stands high, dominating 
the low Roumanian bank opposite, and the advance 
from this point to the capital is only thirty miles. As a 
consequence of the fall of the fortress of Turtukai, the 
evacuation of Silistria, a little further to the east, was 
decided on, on the ground that the garrison being in- 
sufficient would have merely fallen into a trap. The loss 
of these two important fortresses, within two weeks of 
the opening of the war, was a disastrous check, and 
placed a very anxious aspect on one portion of the 
campaign. 

Meanwhile the Transylvanian armies had been weakened 
by the transference of some of their not too abundant 
forces for the defence of the Dobrudja, and the with- 
drawal of General Averescu, the ablest of their Generals, 
to command the army there, which now found themselves 
involved in serious difficulty. 

As already stated, Roumania's equipment was in- 
adequate for a war which she had hoped to limit to the 
Central Powers alone, but which had now developed into 
one against four nations, Germany, Austria, Bulgaria and 
Turkey, all combining to surround and crush our gallant 
little Ally, who was still awaiting the promised artillery 
and support from Russia. Guns, machine guns, aero- 
planes, field telephones, rifles, etc., were alike lacking to 
meet the wants of the long line of thirteen hundred kilo- 
metres on which she was conducting two campaigns 
simultaneously, and to combat the gigantic fighting 



ACROSS THE BARRIER 



167 



machine elaborated by the enemy during two years of 
war and continual experience. 

The Roumanian army consisting of only sixteen 
divisions was now having to face thirty-seven divisions, 
accompanied by an overwhelmingly superior armament, 
twenty divisions of which belonged to the elite of the German 
Army, 

Roumania's two years of neutrality had not availed 
her much, for the Powers, uncertain as to her decision, 
would not assist her with supplies, and it was only by 
the long, roundabout way through Russia with its inter- 
minable delays and demoralization that she could get 
any munitions at all. Furthermore, the hopes she had 
built on the promises of a steady flow of these from Russia 
were not fulfilled. The treacherous pro-German Stuermer 
Government at Petrograd held up supplies and abso- 
lutely vital necessaries, with the consequence that the 
brave little nation, cruelly isolated in this distant corner 
of Europe, was for the most part left alone to meet the 
combined attack of the four Powers. 

With Turtukai and Silistria in German hands, Mac- 
kensen's aim was now to push on to the great Carol 
Bridge at Cernavoda (which means Black Water), the 
only bridge over the Lower Danube for a distance of six 
hundred miles. By capturing it and the railway across 
it, he would sever Roumanian access to the Black Sea, 
as well as cut through Russia's road to the Balkans. The 
bridge is one of the longest in the world, and counting 
the causeways is twelve miles long and cost £1,500,000 
to build. The railway was built in 1882 under Turkish 
rule, by an English company, and cuts through the 
wonderful old wall of Trajan at several points. 



168 R0UMAN1A : YESTERDAY AND TO DAY 



The greater part of the Russian 47th Army Corps and 
the Serbian division were now supporting the Rou- 
manians in the Dobrudja, the whole under the command 
of the Russian General Zayonchovski, the Serbian 
division being composed of Jugo-Slavs forced to fight in 
the Austro-Hungarian Army and taken prisoners by the 
Russians. These soldiers were a splendid lot, and begged 
to be allowed to fight on the side of the Allies and to 
strike a blow for their kinsmen. They fought with a 
stubborn tenacity all through the campaign, winning the 
admiration of both Allies and enemy alike. 

Mackensen, even with his war experience and superior 
troops, vastly superior artillery, and aeroplane service, 
which gave him inestimable advantage over the Rou- 
manian forces who were practically without ' eyes/ 
encountered the fiercest opposition. The defenders con- 
tested his advance with the greatest pugnacity and 
valour. Even the German report admitted that " fierce 
and fluctuating battles have taken place, the enemy 
defending himself with great stubbornness." So much 
indeed was this the case that they were able to inflict 
serious reverses on the enemy at Kara Orman, where they 
lost eight guns and a high-born officer, Prince Henry of 
Bavaria, nephew of the King, and drove the invading 
armies back in complete confusion ; and Mackensen's 
boast of the " crowning mercy " that was to be his — the 
Cernavoda bridge — was still out of reach. 

A propos of the death of this Prince, it is said that just 
before he expired, conscious that his death was not as 
that of other men, he murmured, " Noblesse oblige." These 
words were applauded by the German nation, who over- 
looked the fact that they were the last words spoken by 



ACROSS THE BARRIER 169 



a scion of a Royal German House, and were those of their 
traditional but always chivalrous foe, France. 1 

The Roumanians, unable to bring up sufficient rein- 
forcements, were too exhausted to pursue their successes. 
All through October battles swayed, alternately success 
coming first to one side, then to the other, the Roumanians 
fighting with fury and desperation to arrest the enemy 
advance on their port of Constanza. 

Their forces were still further depleted by some divi- 
sions being withdrawn to the Carpathians, where the 
passes were being seriously threatened. Towards the end 
of September Mackensen, strongly reinforced by Turkish 
and Bulgar divisions, was able to seize his advantage, 
and after a fierce resistance to cut the connection between 
Cernavoda and Constanza, the latter coming within 
range of the German guns and unable to be held. The 
Roumanian troops withdrew under cover of the fire of 
the Russian fleet in the Black Sea, and amid a wild storm 
of wind and rain the Bulgars entered the city. Every- 
thing had been destroyed, including the great stores of 
grain and oil, and the enemy found little beyond some 
hundreds of empty railway trucks and a few loco- 
motives. By this Roumania lost her only seaport and 
the principal lines of communication with Russia were cut. 

The Transylvanian campaign had been launched on 
the assumption of surprise, and unpreparedness on the 
part of the enemy. An historian has described it as a 
" gamble between two conditions of unpreparedness," in 
view of the political conditions and the poor equipment 
of the Roumanian Army for the heavy tasks awaiting 
her. Austria had, however, the luck to hold the better 

1 The Times History of the War. 



i;o ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 

card. Thanks to her splendid system of strategic rail- 
ways, her Ally, Germany, was able to summon to her 
support large forces from Verdun, the Somme, and the 
Riga fronts, while Turkish and Bulgarian hordes rolled 
up from the south on the brave but unfortunate little 
country, which found it could count but little on the 
promised assistance from Russia. 

The forces arrayed against her consisted of over nine 
hundred thousand war-seasoned troops, picked Bavarian 
Alpine corps — sturdy highlanders accustomed to moun- 
tain warfare — and a great mass of artillery, the whole 
under the command of General von Falkenhayn. The 
Roumanian forces were depleted by having to send several 
divisions to the Dobrudja. They were short of big guns 
and had no experience of mountain warfare, for since the 
outbreak of war in 1914 they had been unable to practise 
manoeuvres there for fear that they might excite the 
apprehension of the Central Powers and have them mis- 
construed by them as a threat . 

* * * 7T 

The early days in October saw the great German offen- 
sive in the Carpathians launched. Brussilof's advance in 
Galicia had been checked, and the ill success on his left 
wing was soon to be followed by disastrous consequences 
for the Roumanian offensive. Supported by an over- 
whelming preponderance of artillery the Austro-German 
command delivered blow after blow with deadly effect. 

The Roumanians fighting desperately reeled under 
the titanic onslaught of massed guns and superior forces 
and were forced to retreat towards the passes. Slowly, 
bit by bit, all the ground they had won had to be given 
up, and soon the fifteen thousand prisoners that they had 



ACROSS THE BARRIER 



171 



taken and their depleted forces were all that remained 
to them of the great adventure. 

In the rocky gorges and precipitous roads of the Car- 
pathian passes she braced herself sternly for a desperate 
defensive. Amid the blaze of colour, the glorious beauty 
of early autumn, a fierce resistance took place in the 
narrow defiles, defended as strongly as the slender re- 
sources of the Roumanians allowed. 

The mountain peaks 7000 and 8000 feet high, no longer 
solitary and silent, the haunt of the bear, chamois and 
eagle, were echoing to the deep thunder of the guns, the 
shrill screaming of the shells. 

The aeroplanes— the cavalry of the clouds — with 
droning purr, were contesting the lonely heights and the 
supremacy of the air with the king of birds. Deep roars 
resounded through the ravines as the furious onslaught 
of artillery dislodged great rocks, which, riven and rent, 
crashed down the heights to the depths of the defiles. 

The sunny warm-scented pastures of the lower slopes 
where the bees droned, the sheep browsed, the little 
pastor fluted his plaintive melody so short a while ago, 
was torn and desolated now by the remorseless fury of 
the shells. 

Death and destruction were stalking hand in hand, 
and many a mother's son lay grim and distorted under 
the benediction of the eternal hills. 

High up on the ledges of the narrow defiles ran the 
steep winding roads on which the Austrian high-explosive 
shells were blasting their way ; hundreds of feet below 
brawled the streams. 

Again and yet again the valorous Roumanians wrested 
success from the enemy and drove him back. In the Jiu 



172 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 

valley they inflicted a crushing and humiliating defeat 
on those fiercest of Teuton fighters, the Bavarians, who 
fled in utter rout ; like the Irishman who thought it was 
better to be a coward for five minutes than to be dead 
for the rest of his life ! They left immense stores behind 
them, only snatching time to shoot 1300 of their horses, 
which they hastily buried in a gigantic funeral mound 
before escaping on foot through the ravines. General 
Dragalina, one of Roumania's exiled sons from Transyl- 
vania and a most daring and capable commander, was 
severely wounded here and succumbed later to his 
injuries. He was a brave, strong personality and greatly 
beloved by his men. 

But these and other brilliant counter-offensives of the 
gallant little Roumanian Army could not stem the 
onward sweep of the Teutonic hosts, who had burst 
through the mountain passes and were pouring into the 
wide rich plains of Wallachia, this treasure land of grain 
in Eastern Europe. 

Roumania had hardly faced the disastrous fall of Con- 
stanza and the Cernavoda bridge when the rude shock of 
the fall of Craiova, the chief town of Ollenia, " the 
millionaires' city " as it was called, forced them to realize 
the imminent peril of the nation. 

* * * * 

By the end of November the Austro-German, Bulgar 
and Turkish armies were closing in on Bucharest. Out- 
gunned, out-manned, the splendid peasant soldiers of our 
Ally rose to the crisis with the true spirit of soldiers, 
defending their country with desperation, and as the 
German reports admit, " with unsparing energy." 

The small Orsova group stubbornly holding on to its 



ACROSS THE BARRIER 



173 



positions at the Iron Gates of the Danube was left far 
behind, as the main Roumanian Army retreated, and 
found itself in the rear of the advancing enemy forces. 
Completely cut off and isolated from the main army, this 
valiant detachment of seven thousand men under General 
Anastasiu, stubbornly fighting, tried to escape the doom 
that they knew was certain. But they resolved to sell 
their lives dearly, harrying unceasingly the rear troops of 
the enemy forces and menacing their transport traffic on 
the Danube. 

This wonderful retreat lasted three weeks, and so 
courageously and determinedly did they fight to the last 
that they even earned the praise and admiration of the 
enemy, who reported that " amidst continuous fighting 
and delivering repeated counter-attacks the Orsova 
group withdrew slowly to the south-east, constantly 
resisting and fighting for the honour of its arms." 

Decimated and lacking in everything but their superb 
courage and daring which resisted to the bitter end, the 
gallant remnant, under its heroic General Anastasiu, 
were forced to surrender at Caracalu two days after the 
fall of Bucharest. 

Meanwhile on the Danube frontier Mackensen had been 
able to force a crossing at Giurgevo and was now marching 
northwards to co-operate with the armies advancing 
from the west under Falkenhayn, the objective being to 
close in on the capital. 

Whilst destroying Giurgevo, the Bulgarian forces under 
his command gave full rein to the hatred and savagery of 
their dour natures. In a few hours nothing was left of 
the once prosperous little town but scenes of wanton 
destruction and piles of gruesome corpses — old men, 



174 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 

women, children, girls ! What the flames did not spare 
was wrecked by the fury of these heartless brutes, who 
in the way of the furor teutonicus of their predatory 
masters had nothing to learn, and in the matter of murder, 
rape and savagery could even give them points. They 
were well aware of Germany's order that " Roumania 
should pay in full the expenses of her invasion/' 

The German Socialist and Labour paper the Arbeiier 
Zeitung, crowing with satisfaction over the misery of the 
devastated peasantry, remarked : — 

" Our troops could not possibly have marched at this 
rate had not Roumania so much cattle, so many geese, 
pigs and poultry. The Wallachian plain is covered with 
thriving villages very different from the poor hamlets in 
the mountains on the northern border of the country. 
The invading forces live here in great style." 

The extreme gravity of the moment was incontestable. 
General Averescu, now in supreme command of the 
Roumanian Army, gathered together all the forces he 
could muster for a last stand on the River Arges and a 
decisive battle, on which the fate of Bucharest would 
depend. 

It was now that the soldiers of the Czar — two divisions, 
a small part of the long-promised help — made their first 
appearance in Wallachia, although this was three months 
after the commencement of hostilities, at a time when the 
little nation was mourning the tragic loss of more than 
half her kingdom. Bleeding and exhausted, she was 
facing a formidable foe flushed and exalted with success, 
and supported by a crushing preponderance of both 
artillery and men. 

The narrow line of the river Arges, on which Averescu 



ACROSS THE BARRIER 



175 



was giving battle, presented no formidable obstacle, 
being not much more than a wide ditch. Nevertheless, 
General Presan delivered a counter-stroke in the hope of 
driving a wedge between the army of Mackensen and 
the German centre under Kuhne. Within an ace of 
achieving his purpose he repulsed the enemy, throwing 
him across the river Neaylovic and defeating the Turkish 
division as well as the main body of German-Bulgarian 
troops, resulting in the capture of fifty guns and some 
thousands of prisoners. 

But success was dashed from his grasp, for espionage 
was rampant, and the whole place infested with German 
civilians domiciled in the country, of whom fifty, dis- 
guised in Russian uniform, were arrested, tried and shot 
in one day. 

General Presan, desperately pressed and anxiously 
awaiting the expected reinforcements which were pur- 
posely delayed through the culpable negligence of a sub- 
ordinate officer, found treachery on every side. General 
Socescu — a naturalized German whose real name was 
Sosek— -commanding a division, left his post at night at 
nine o'clock without authority, and, in the midst of this 
supreme crisis, went to Bucharest. The position occupied 
by his troops was attacked by the enemy at 9.30, the 
line was pierced — General Presan's at one time victory 
was turned into a crushing defeat of the Roumanian 
armies — and the way to the capital lay open ! 



CHAPTER IX 



WRECKING A NATION'S WEALTH 

WHILE the city was being invested and its 
destiny decided on the Arges, a section of 
von Falkenhayn's army was sweeping for- 
ward like a great flock of vultures to the 
rich prey they expected to find at Ploesti, the centre of 
the immensely rich oil region of Roumania. 

There in the valleys of the Prahova, Dimbovitza, of 
Teleajen and Buzeu the earth sweats through the pores 
of the soil the surplus blood from her vast arteries. 
Covetously, with hungry eyes eager for the prize, the 
Germans were quickly advancing counting on the rich 
spoil they would find in the great store of oil, petrol 
and benzine of which they were so desperately in 
need. 

As was the case in the destruction of their great grain 
store at Constanza, and Braila, an instant and quick 
decision had to be taken by the Roumanian Government. 

The British Government had sent out Colonel Sir John 
Norton Griffiths, d.s.o., a well-known engineer and 
member of Parliament, a man of great energy and deter- 
mination, to aid and advise them in this crisis. For 
Roumania it was a stern and tragic decision to take, and 
nothing but the supreme gravity of the moment could 
have justified it, forced upon them as it was by the 
relentless advance of the enemy. 

176 



WRECKING A NATION'S WEALTH 177 



It was a terrible and heart-breaking undertaking to 
have to deliberately sanction the destruction of a vast 
industry, and never perhaps in the history of the world 
has there been an act of self-sacrifice so moving as the 
immolation of a country's treasure at the height of its 
prosperity on the altar of dire and tragic necessity, while 
her people starved and cried for bread. 

But the exigencies of the situation demanded it, and 
as Vandervelde has said, " to destroy war it is necessary 
to carry war to its logical conclusion." 

The Government had given orders that all the work- 
men employed there, young and old, without distinction 
of nationality, were to be evacuated, so that no one 
capable of repairing the wells should fall into the hands 
of the enemy. Village after village poured out, the work- 
men with their wives and children, swelling the already 
mighty stream of refugees on the road to Braila, Focsani 
or Galatz, industrial centres as yet not in the hands of 
the enemy. For the whole district had to be emptied of 
its human burden before fire and devastation could work 
their ill-fated will. 

It must have been like some grim nightmare, some 
ghastly picture of a distorted mind, those bitter days of 
early winter, when a whole countryside was turned into 
the roads homeless and in flight ! Scenes poignant in 
their sacrifice but which had to be accomplished, however 
cruel, however desperate, in order to spare the little 
country further sufferings at the hands of a boastful, 
replenished and enriched conqueror. 

As Hamilton Fyfe has said : — 

" Destruction of that which has been created by man's 
energy for the satisfaction of the world's needs, of that 



178 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 

which provides profit and wage for hundreds of thou- 
sands of people, and so enables them to live, must be a 
hideous, saddening spectacle. That the wrecking was 
beyond all question necessary made the case no better. 
It added to it a horrid irony. We were forced to defend 
ourselves against barbarians by barbarous means. To 
leave the oil-wells untouched would have been a crime. 
The Germans and their dupes need lubricants very badly. 
These were the only oil-fields from which they could get 
them in any quantity. They would have benefited by the 
products of the Roumanian wells for as long as they 
occupied the oil region. Then they would have destroyed 
the industry themselves so as to prevent the Allies from 
making use of it. 

" It was therefore an urgent matter, when the enemy 
flood came pouring over the Roumanian plain sweeping 
the Roumanian Army before it, to set about destruction 
with vigour." 

Sir John Norton Griffiths, aided by several Britishers 
resident in the country, and connected with the oilfields, 
who, dressed in khaki, were given temporary commissions 
in the army, and supported by the overseers and engineers, 
worked like veritable demons. If they were to be de- 
stroyed, then they must be so completely wrecked that the 
Germans could not hope to repair or utilize them for 
years. 

One by one the valleys which formerly had been hives 
of industry and movement were invaded by the wreckers. 
" The man with the sledge-hammer," as Sir John was 
called, his muscular arms, his athletic frame working like 
a Titan, led the way showing them how to WTeck the 
derricks and pipes. The big hammer swung round his 



WRECKING A NATION'S WEALTH 179 

head in a fury of energy, as he struck blow after blow 
that Vulcan himself might have envied for strength and 
precision, till everything was a tangled and terrible 
ruin. 

Then with torches or bundles of straw he and his 
energetic helpers would rush to the big reservoirs and 
cisterns — lakes of petrol and benzine — to set them alight. 
Oblivious of danger or fatigue, valley after valley was 
destroyed, houses and villages wiped out, and millions of 
pounds were swept away every hour. 

The enemy was so close on their heels that the work of 
destruction had to be effected with the utmost speed. 
The benzine and petrol was poured through the open 
sluices and pipes until it flooded the factories and 
ground to a depth of several feet. Into this were hurled 
machinery tools, dynamos, after having been first smashed 
to pieces. 

A lighted match or straw was cast into this flooded 
area, and as the workmen saw all that they had built 
with so much care — at so much cost — flare into a roaring 
furnace they would smile bitterly as they murmured, 
" Here's another the devils won't get." 

It was a dangerous job and many of them were burnt 
by the inflammable air which caught fire and hung round 
in gassy clouds. But they stuck to it with extraordinary 
determination. The valves and cocks of the cisterns were 
turned on, allowing the precious oil and other products 
to flood the earthen embankments around the tanks, 
which were then set on fire, and vitriol was run into the 
steam and oil boilers in order to render them completely 
useless. The pump station was also flooded with oil and 
benzine, then burnt, the flames rising like great leaping 



i8o ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 



tongues nearly four hundred feet high — a panorama of 
magnificent horror ! The tortured leaping flames, the 
towering columns of dense black smoke rolling skywards ! 

The huge tanks, exploding with a roar, were hurled a 
distance of over one hundred yards, ploughing up the 
ground in great rents, while on all sides resounded the 
shattering thunder of the derricks and cranes as they 
crashed to the ground. 

The deep pipes which drew up the petrol and precious 
oils from the depths of the earth, many of them 900 to 
5 000 feet in depth and of a value of 90,000 francs ; others 
3000 feet deep and of 250,000 francs in value, were choked 
up and blocked, far, far down, by forcing scrap iron, 
broken chains, stones, mud, rocks, and drilling bits, 
thrust upside down, through the pipes, while the out- 
lets were twisted and destroyed out of all shape and 
use. 

One of the most dangerous points tackled was the big 
power house at the great Astra works. It was full of gas, 
and there was the possibility of its exploding at any 
moment. The Roumanian Commission before retiring 
endeavoured to persuade Sir John from undertaking such 
a dangerous operation as its destruction, but he would 
not listen to the word danger. Grasping a fuse of lighted 
hay he dashed into the building, setting fire to the oil in 
the basement, which had been previously pumped in. 
It was a courageous act and a miracle he was not 
asphyxiated — he was slightly burnt — and that the others 
were not killed. 

One of the last things to be demolished was a huge 
tank, the largest in Europe, containing 10,000 tons of 
petrol. 



WRECKING A NATION'S WEALTH 181 



The enemy was so close and following so swiftly, 
anxiously hoping to be in time to stay the destruction of 
the coveted booty, that not a moment could be wasted ; 
in fact the whole work was only completed a bare hour 
or two before he advanced over the ground. As for the 
financial destruction the sum ran into many millions. A 
French engineer, one of those working at this terrible 
work, puts the bill at the following : — 

Francs. 

Petrol, benzine, lubricant and mineral oil . 75,000,000 
Refineries ...... 80,000,000 

Reservoirs and cisterns .... 25,000,000 

Material for pipes, derricks and installations 100,000,000 
Installation and pipes .... 800,000,000 

1,080,000,000 



More than seventy refineries, including the celebrated 
Steana and Astra, were destroyed and more than 80,000 
waggon-loads of petrol were burnt in the reservoirs. One 
can understand the tragic irony of the destruction and 
the effect of it on the wealth of the nation when one 
realizes that the output of petrol in 1915 reached the 
figure of 1,850,000,000 tons, and that the industry, as 
yet only in its infancy, was worth about £6,000,000. 

Over twenty millions of foreign money was invested 
in this great industry, and it is surmised it will re- 
quire thirty millions to put the refineries again into 
working order. 

Reservoirs containing 12,000 to 15,000 cubic metres of 
petrol were set alight, and the great clouds of inflammable 
vapour rising into the smoke-laden, darkened air ex- 
ploded and darted about like huge will-o'-the-wisps, 
catching light here and there as it floated overhead. In 



182 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 



one place more than 160 great shafts were set alight 
and destroyed, while the gas searching underground for 
an outlet rumbled and roared like an imprisoned giant,, 
till finding a sudden vent it burst upwards in a great spit 
of flame which belched forth earth, sand and stones, 
intermingled with great flares of gas. 

One of these vast clouds of asphyxiating gases floated 
over a poor little gipsy encampment on the hillside, 
suffocating every soul there with the bitter poisonous 
fumes, while the leaping flames followed, wiping out and 
devouring all that was left. 

The valleys were ablaze from end to end — a furnace 
that sent up a dense pall of black smoke that blotted out 
the sky, the daylight, and left nothing but a scene of 
frenzied Dantesque destruction and darkness. This 
dense black cloud enveloped Targovistea, a town 
twenty-five miles away, for hours, turning day into 
night. 

The devastated valleys — once such scenes of pros- 
perity — bright with the sun by day, little electric lamps 
at night lighting so cheerfully the peaceful homes of the 
workers, the farms of the peasants, were silent now and 
dark. In the distance the muttering thunder of the 
guns throbbed heavily through the smoke-laden air 
and, from out the ruin and desolation around, the broken 
chimney-stacks stood up tall and gaunt, like weird 
tombstones, in this smoking necropolis of a dead in- 
dustry. 

The enemy advancing rapidly by forced marches, had 
before his furious and disappointed gaze the great smoke 
and flame riven sky, betokening the destruction of what 
he so ardently desired. Like Moses, a pillar of smoke 



WRECKING A NATION'S WEALTH 183 



was in front of them by day, a pillar of fire at night. 
Their utmost endeavours to reach the scene and stop the 
destruction was ever frustrated. The pillar was always 
menacingly ahead ! And nothing but a blackened desolate 
and reeking land greeted them in mockery and bitter- 
ness. 



CHAPTER X 



THE VIA DOLOROSA 

I heard a voice that cried, " Make way for those who died," 
And all the coloured crowd like ghosts at morning fled ; 
And down the waiting road rank after rank there strode 
In mute and measured march a hundred thousand men. 
Like desolate stars they shone one moment and were gone, 
And I sank down and put my hand across my head 
And felt them moving past, nor looked to see the last 
In steady silent march, one hundred thousand dead. 

/. C. Squire. 

jA ND Bucharest ! the city of pleasure, the gay 
/ % little capital ! Vanished are her smiles, the 

/ ^ dimples are gone. 

Squaring her shoulders, looking fate bravely 
in the face, she braced herself for the worst. A silence 
had fallen on the gay clatter of the city, the streets were 
empty, a sense of impending predestined fate hung over 
everything like a pall during those terrible days of fore- 
boding, those throbbing hours of fear. 

Her children watched the relentless march of events 
with strained and anxious eyes ; with sinking hearts they 
saw the enemy advancing swiftly, piercing deeper and 
ever deeper into the heart of their land. 

Wild is the music of autumnal winds amongst the faded 
trees. Wilder still the moaning winds of winter. The 
whistling of the shells . . . the thunder of the great guns 
... as in a slowly increasing crescendo of fury they drive 
the terrified peasants towards the capital, like leaves 
before a hurricane. 

184 



THE VIA DOLOROSA 



185 



They have left all that means life and happiness and 
home behind — their men, their sons — bleeding and dying 
in that hell of fire. Their little homes built up with such 
patient labour and self-sacrifice, the cattle, the sheep, 
the dear personal possessions, the grandparents too feeble 
to fly — -who refused to go ! 

The feverish departure, the hastily packed bundles, 
the trembling fingers, the eyes blinded with tears that 
turned for a last look, carrying the memory of the beloved 
home. The old people standing on the doorstep waving a 
trembling farewell, the burning villages on the horizon, 
the crying children, the babe at her breast. 

The long grey roads leading to the capital are packed 
with hurrying fugitives. Too tired, too anxious to speak 
they hurry along. Great bullock transport wagons 
creak slowly by, the stately calm-eyed oxen moving with 
the same slow dignity as in days of peace and leisure. A 
dark line moves sinuously along in the bleak dusk. Quick, 
eager-eyed a regiment of infantry passes. With set faces 
they march rapidly towards the west. With a dry sob 
the women thrust out their hands to them in passing, 
murmuring huskily, " God be with you." The trees stand 
out bare and leafless, lifting gaunt arms to a leaden sky ! 

Surely, surely the Russians are coming to help ! The 
gallant Roumanian Army fighting with such desperate 
devotion will get the help, the guns, the men in time ? 
Surely then the Neamtzi 1 will be stayed ? 

Darkness and cold — the wind is whistling drearily ; 
rain mixed with sleet is falling ; the little ones, crying and 
hungry, drag at the mother's skirt. Where shall we 
sleep to-night ? 

1 Contemptuous term for the hated German, 



186 R0UMAN1A : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 



What does the future hold ? 

Dear Mother of Christ, how wet, how cold we are 
— and tired. 

My man, rny man ! where is he now ? 

Shall we ever get to the city — another ten miles ! 
Oh, the whimpering little ones. 

* ■* * * 

In the city a fever of unrest prevailed. One moment 
the brilliant heroism of the gallant, dwindling Roumanian 
Army would succeed in arresting the merciless advance 
of the enemy for a few days and the spirits of the people 
would bound upwards with hope, only to be cast down- 
again with the news of further disasters. 

The consulates were besieged with people trying to get 
their passports. The rich were sending their families 
northwards and thousands of fugitives were crowding 
into the city. Prices were soaring and the excitement was 
intense. 

The Government had taken resolute means to prevent 
espionage or news leaking out, but the capital was full of 
Hungarians and Germans settled in business, as well as 
paid German secret agents, and was a veritable rabbit 
warren of intrigue. Several hundred German clerks had 
been interned on the declaration of war, but it was found 
that the banks and some of the important business houses 
could not be carried on without them. They were there- 
fore released, and as can be well imagined, made ample 
use of their liberty for espionage. They stood about the 
corners of the streets in groups, insolent and sneering, dis- 
cussing in vainglorious terms the successes of their armies. 

No letters or newspapers were received by the troops 
with the exception of a little news-sheet printed especially 



THE VIA DOLOROSA 



187 



for them. The tea-shops had all been closed. Too many 
wild rumours and exaggerations had emanated from them 
for them to be regarded as anything but mischief factories* 

The news of the evacuation of Const anza ; then of 
Craiova, the rich millionaires' town, had fallen upon 
their ears with a crashing insistence, and a dread pre- 
monition of what next might follow ! Would the Army 
be strong enough to hold back the Colossus that was 
striding forward so swiftly, so vastly superior in heavy 
artillery and machine guns ? It was being realized that 
the supreme crisis was approaching and that their only 
hope of safety from the tragic fate that had befallen 
Serbia and Belgium lay in Russia remaining true to her 
promise, and sending them the long delayed help. 

General Averescu was summarily deleting the army of 
the negligent and unsatisfactory officers, who as in all 
armies and all wars have failed to prove their worth, and 
commands were being given to active and energetic 
younger men. 

Daily the city was subjected to the horrors of Zeppelin 
and aeroplane bombardment. They bombed the hospitals 
so continuously that the authorities had to erect a small 
camp beside them in which they interned some of the 
sleek, well-fed German prisoners. This proceeding, 
through the agency of the hundreds of German spies in 
the city, soon reached the ears of the enemy and caused 
him to desist from this especial game of hospital baiting. 

They flew over the crowded courtyard of the railway 
station where hundreds of women and children had con- 
gregated waiting for a train to carry them north to 
safety. Flying very low with no anti-aircraft guns or 
defending aeroplanes to distract them from their dia- 



188 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 



bolicai work, they raked the helpless crowd with their 
machine guns until the place was a perfect shambles of 
horror. 

The small number of machines Roumania possessed 
were all needed at the front, and there were none left for 
the defence of the capital. She had no aircraft factories, 
and the only way to replenish her shattered stock was 
by the long round-about way of import from France or 
England. 

Thus the little nation in this hour of dire distress was 
feeling the terrible loneliness of her position, isolated and 
away on the furthest shore of Europe. She had now only 
one door of entry and exit open — that through Russia. 
The long, long route from south to north, then through 
Sweden, Norway and across the submarine invested 
North Sea before she reached her distant allies France 
and England ; weeks en route — and Sweden, as events 
showed later, was not strictly neutral. Indeed her Foreign 
Office and Minister seemed to be at the complete dis- 
position of Germany in despatching her cipher telegrams 
to South America, Mexico and other neutral countries. 
Great difficulty was experienced in getting even Red 
Cross supplies passed through this neutral country whose 
Queen is a German. 

What a malevolent, pestilential influence these German 
women have exercised on the countries whose thrones 
have had the misfortune to be occupied by them ; the 
one brilliant and wonderful exception during this war 
being the truly heroic, patriotic, and high-souled Queen 
of the Belgians, who though Bavarian has shown that 
honour, truth and justice come far before the creed of 
hate, cruelty, arrogance and intrigue, the cult of lies, 



THE VIA DOLOROSA 



deception, ambiguity and hypocrisy, this lust of power, 
to be obtained by fair means or foul, which is the inverted 
religion instilled into the race from their earliest child- 
hood. 

The German Legation here, as well as those other shame- 
less nests of spying and intrigue, scattered over the world 
and which she has debased from their honourable title of 
Legation, was a veritable scullery where all the odious 
schemes and dirty work of the master chef were per- 
formed. The place was a sink of foul plans and poisonous 
plots hatched by members of this tainted race under the 
loyal protection of a nation still at peace. What scoun- 
drels these German diplomatic ' gentlemen ' can be ! 

As a Japanese officer said, " What most disgust able 
gentleman German can make, he make a disgrace to 
civilization to-day. He belong to class that England call 
cad, and France canaille. " 

Here in the gardens of the Legation over one hundred 
boxes of explosives were dug up. Fifty contained " Bick- 
ford cords " with charges. In another corner of the 
grounds under a heap of firewood were buried other 
boxes ; on one, bearing in red wax the seal of the German 
Consulate, was the following direction : "By King's 
Messenger. Very secret ! Not to be thrown." Beneath 
this wrapper was a second, " Very secret — by tela. To 
his Royal Colonel and Military Attache, His Honour 

Herr von " The name had been rubbed out, but 

traces of the letters HAM — T — IN were recognizable 
(Colonel von Hammerstein was the German military 
attache). Inside the box was a typewritten note in 
German to the following effect : " Herewith four tubes 
for horses and four for horned cattle. For use as directed. 



rgo ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 



Each tube sufficient for two hundred head. If possible 
administer direct through the animals' mouths, if not, 
in their fodder. 

" Should be obliged for a little report on success with 
you. If there should be good news to report Herr K/s 
presence here for a day desirable." 

In six boxes were found test-tubes filled with a yellowish 
liquid. These phials and the cartridges were reported by 
the military to be high explosives, with nitrate of am- 
monium and trotzl of great destructive effect. In the 
case of the test-tubes, the Institute of Bacteriology re- 
ported that they contained glanders and anthrax bacilli 
of very virulent culture. 

A confidential German agent who was arrested con- 
fessed that " still worse things " were hidden in the 
Legation. One knows how successfully they were start- 
ing this greater scheme of devilish ' frightfulness ' by 
dropping in the country districts from their aeroplanes tins 
of sweets for the peasants and children to find, and which 
contained the most virulent culture of typhoid and cholera. 

The Taubes, generally in groups of five and six, would 
raid the city continually, sometimes six times in twenty- 
four hours. The houses being rarely of more than two 
stories high the destruction, casualties and death lists 
were appalling. The hospitals were filled with men, 
women and children, with legs and arms blown off and 
terrible injuries of all sorts. The little Boy Scouts did 
splendid work as ambulance bearers and first-aid helpers. 
These brave little fellows controlled their natural terror 
most wonderfully, and played their part of succour in 
the shambles of the streets with fine courage and presence 
of mind. 



THE VIA DOLOROSA 191 

An English lady working in one of the Bucharest 
hospitals gives a vivid picture of the life there. 

" To-day I drove to the hospital with Mrs. C. It was 
three o'clock on a lovely sunny day. We got to an open 
market-place, and noticed that all the poeple were looking 
up — and then, for half an hour we were really in it ! 
For there were six Taubes overhead, all dropping bombs. 

"We bought our cheese quite calmly in the market and 
drove on. As we neared the hospital, shrapnel and bombs 
began to fall all round. I picked up one man wounded 
and unconscious, and took him on with us in the motor. 
A woman was killed at the gate of the hospital, and 
another man died on the doorstep. We went in and 
settled down to work. We had three operations between 
four and seven, and were just going home when men on 
stretchers began to come in from the different parts of 
the town where bombs and shrapnel had fallen. I wired 
home not to expect me till they saw me, and we worked 
on till nearly 2.30, till all the operations were over. I've 
never had such a nightmare day, but we finished them 
all. The other hospitals were all full up, too, and the 
wounded were all over the town. The casualties were 
thirty dead and over a hundred wounded, for the streets 
were crowded when the Taubes came. The beasts flew 
round and round, hardly a quarter of the town escaped. 
I got home to find that A. and a lot of others had stood 
in the garden and watched ; five big pieces of shrapnel 
fell there, and yet the silly people stayed. I collected the 
pieces and shall have them decorated with silver bands. 
A. consents not to do it again, but he was so interested, 
and says it was such a fine sight that he couldn't resist 
it ! 



192 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 

" One couldn't be excited in the hospital, there was no 
time. If a doctor is cutting off things and calls out panse- 
ment ! or aqua lactea ! like a pistol at your head, you 
somehow find it even if you don't know what it is ! One 
just works without realizing at all what one is doing. 
After it was all over we collapsed, and sat in the hospital 
model kitchen with the petrol cooking lamp and drank 
hot tea and zwicka and tried to recover. I don't feel it's 
over yet. We shall have the beasts before morning 
again ; they have only half an hour to fly for more bombs, 
but twice in twenty-four hours would be too much for 
one's nerves. They came last night, too, you know, but 
I was too tired to get up for them. 

" Well, you'll think I'm romancing, but they came 
again last night — six Taubes — that's three times in 
twenty-four hours ! Yesterday already seems like a 
dream except for the fact that we helped to save lives, 
and that's all that seems to count. In the market people's 
arms were blown off, and one man's head ; twenty women 
and children lay dead in the Hospital Colce. 

" It's nearly eight o'clock and we've had twelve hours' 
peace. Three of the poor legless fellows died. I am 
trying to console myself with the one remaining who 
will recover. Apparently a Zepp comes at night and 
the six Taubes by day. The bombs behave differently 
and procedure is different when avoiding a Zepp or a 
Taube. The latter bombs are pointed and timed, they 
pierce the floor, and explode downstairs — so you go up. 
The Zepp bombs explode on contact — so at night you go 
down. By day one has time to decide, as one can watch 
the approach, by night we sleep in our bedrooms and trust 
to luck. So far we have been lucky. 



THE VIA DOLOROSA 



193 



"They — the enemy — were undoubtedly well informed 
by spies, else they would not have come when all our airmen 
were away. They are scared of the French airmen and 
cowards at heart. 

"It's really not the bombardment that has upset me, 
but all the horrors I've seen. One poor chap with both 
legs off sat up on his bleeding stumps saying, ' Thank 
God I'm alive.' No bombs have fallen on the interned 
Germans, which is significant of spy work. I think that 
the Red Cross flags should come down off the hospitals, 
for I'm sure that the Taubes try for them." 1 

But French aviators and British ' birds ' from Salonica, 
flying over the whole width of Bulgarian territory, across 
the Danube and the invading forces, to Bucharest, 
arrived soon after, and thus put an end to the daily sport 
of the Knights of the Iron Cross. 

* * * * 

Food and provisions of all sorts were getting very 
scarce. At all times a most expensive city, it was 
now under martial law, and the simplest commodities 
were only to be had at exorbitant rates. The enemy 
was only twenty miles away, and disorganization 
of transport and trains was making itself woefully 
apparent. Meat was only permitted three days a week. 
Coffee was being sold at 20 francs a lb., tea 22 francs, 
biscuits 14 francs, while the prices demanded for boots 
and clothes were extortionate. The simplest serge dress 
or man's suit was £10 and £12. An overcoat cost £14. 
Coal, which is both dear and scarce even in peace time, 
costing generally £5 a ton, was quite unobtainable, and 
winter had set in with extraordinary severity. 

1 A correspondent (Lady Barclay) in The Times History of the War, 



194 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 

No one was allowed out at night except on urgent 
business. Meeting or talking to friends in the streets was 
strictly forbidden and not more than three people might 
walk together. Stern measures were taken against 
thieving or disorder, and those caught were shot at once. 
The city was wrapped in darkness at night, and gloomy 
apprehension and fear had settled down on the civilian 
population. Militia-men paraded and policed the town 
— aged dug-outs who stumped about vigorously. 

In the Government offices, banks and legations active 
preparations were being made for removal. Everything 
was being hurriedly packed, ready for the word of de- 
parture, should the worst happen. Everyone knew that 
the fate of the city depended on the battle of the Arges. 
The forts built round Bucharest by Briaulmont were 
obsolete and utterly useless against the great guns the 
Germans possessed, and which had crumpled up the 
defences of Liege and Namur so quickly ! 

Indeed, so serious was the Army's shortage of artillery 
that the heavy guns protecting Bucharest had been dis- 
mounted and, mounted on temporary platforms, had 
been despatched to the front. This rendered the position 
of the capital defenceless, and it would have been sheer 
folly to have risked the loss of an army through trying to 
hold what was after all but an open city. 

With the usual cunning and boastfulness of the Boche 
they had been spreading reports as to the strength and 
importance of the ' fortress ' in order to impress and 
impose on the gullibility of the people at home, and to 
accentuate the valour and importance of the conquest. 
It was also done so as to give them the excuse of indulging 
in the recreation of looting and destruction, so dear to 



THE VIA DOLOROSA 



195 



their nature. But the Roumanian Government promptly 
countered their declaration by an official pronouncement 
on December 3rd, declaring that :— 

" Well before the commencement of the war, as is 
known to our enemies, Bukarest was deprived of the 
character of a fortress, and when the danger of occupation 
presented itself steps were taken for the evacuation of the 
city by the military elements, but not by the civil popula- 
tion, which has been enjoined to remain in the city." 
* * * * 

Some few of the long promised, long delayed Russian 
troops were now arriving. Too late however. The 
situation was desperate, and beyond hope of saving. 

The arrival of the French Military Mission seemed to 
put new heart into the populace, ignorant of the rumours 
that had been circulating as to the delay in Russia's 
promised help in troops and guns. 

But the supplies of war material, aeroplanes and 
military equipment despatched to her by the Allies were 
being deliberately detained in Russia by order of the 
traitor Stuermer. 

Munitions and an enormous mass of war material were 
lying in trains in countless railway sidings in the north 
of Russia. Only now was the infamy of the betrayal of 
Roumania by the pro-German Stuermer Government at 
Petrograd being suspected. Supremely critical as the 
situation was becoming it was incredible that such 
treachery could exist, and it seems to have been General 
Berthelot, the head of the French Mission sent out to 
Roumania in this crisis, who, on arrival, declared to 
King Ferdinand, " Sire, we have been betrayed and the 
treason comes from Petrograd." 



196 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 

Facts have recently come to light which show us that 
Roumania was summoned by Russia to the war before 
she was ready, and that this was done at the bidding of 
Berlin. 

Think of the paradox ! Berlin felt sure Roumania 
would come in on the side of the Allies as soon as she was 
ready. 

The Austrian Red Book has disclosed " that inter- 
vention was to come about with the least chance of success 
for Roumania and with the most advantage for Germany. " 

The Central Powers were aware that France and Eng- 
land had promised to send her great quantities of war 
material. They also knew that the time arranged for 
intervention would be the spring of 1917, when a great 
general offensive of the Allies would be launched. Under 
these conditions Roumania would have proved a very 
serious menace to the Central Powers, and one they were 
determined to discount if possible. 

During the summer and autumn of 1916 Stuermer was 
Prime Minister to the Russian Government under the 
late Czar. Fully in sympathy with the German ex- 
Czarina in her machinations to arrange a separate peace 
(an obsession due, it is stated, to a message received at a 
spiritualistic seance that the Czarevitch would never be 
well while the war lasted), he was only too ready, plenti- 
fully bribed with German money, to collaborate with her 
and the dissolute and intriguing priest Rasputin to 
further Germany's designs in this direction. A plot was 
deliberately hatched by Stuermer with the Berlin Govern- 
ment, with which, it is now disclosed, he was in constant 
communication. 

In order to accomplish the peace Stuermer and Proto- 



THE VIA DOLOROSA 



197 



popoff sought to attain, it was decided that the Russian 
Government should summon Roumania by means of a 
quasi-ultimatum to enter the war on the side of the 
Entente. Brussiloff 's offensive had come to a halt by the 
end of July, and Hindenburg's divisions were threatening 
seriously to outflank him. 

A great defeat of the Russian armies would at once 
sweep these traitors from office and destroy all their 
ambitious schemes. This had to be averted at any cost. 
The storm threatening to burst over the Russian front 
must be diverted, and the cost of the separate peace 
aimed at by those intriguers be paid for in blood and 
desolation by their trusting and unsuspecting neighbour 
Roumania. 

Russia was to promise to send her munitions and 
troops to support her in the defence of her terribly long 
frontier, being more than three-quarters of the circum- 
ference of the kingdom, and Stuermer assured Berlin 
that once Roumania had started her offensive it would 
be quite easy to leave these promises unfulfilled, or so 
delay them that they would be useless. It will be seen 
how well he accomplished this. 

So the famous ultimatum was despatched to the 
Roumanian Government, an ultimatum " the brutality 
of which was only equalled by its perfidy." Haughtily 
they demanded " Now or never," and, continuing im- 
periously : " for it must not be hoped that we shall again 
permit the Roumanian Army later on to make a military 
promenade and enter Austro-Hungarian territory in 
triumph." 

In return for her intervention the Russian Govern- 
ment agreed to support her with the greatly needed guns, 



198 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 

munitions, horses, aeroplanes, and to send two hundred 
thousand men to her support. 

This was a vital necessity, for the small Roumanian 
Army, inexperienced, lacking guns, and consisting only 
of sixteen divisions, was quite inadequate to protect the 
seven hundred kilometres of the Transylvanian frontier, 
as well as the six hundred of the Danubian front. 

Part of the plan of campaign of the Roumanian General 
Staff was to take possession of the Danubian bridgeheads 
of Rustchuk and Sistova, in order to guard against the 
possibility of the enemy crossing the Danube ; for it was 
known that two hundred thousand Bulgars reinforced 
by several Turkish divisions were concentrated in the 
Dobrudja. Russia arrogantly declared that on no account 
were hostilities to be directed against Bulgaria. They 
assured Roumania that Bulgaria would never declare war 
against the Slav sister nation and deliverer, and that 
Roumania would have nothing to fear from that quarter. 

Roumania could hardly have believed this or put much 
faith in the " peaceful negotiations " then being con- 
ducted between their representatives in Sofia and those 
of that Jud?s of the Balkans, that unscrupulous knave, 
Ferdinand of Bulgaria, whose only contribution to the 
cause of civilization or the war has been the dexterity 
with which he has stabbed his neighbours in the back 
when they haven't been looking. The Roumanian 
General Staff, however, had undeniable information that 
several Bulgaro-Turkish divisions were already moving 
towards the frontier, and Russia was compelled to place 
two divisions at their disposal. Of these divisions one was 
composed of prisoners taken from the Austrians, men of 
Serb, Croat and Czech nationality. 



THE VIA DOLOROSA 199 

It was impossible for Roumania to resist the imperious 
pressure of Russia, seemingly representing the Allied 
voice. If she refused, she knew that never alone could 
she realize her long cherished dream of the emancipation 
and union of her exiled brothers under one crown. But 
her confidence and faith in the French and British 
Governments entitled her to hope that they would " see 
her through," and take full account of the vast sacrifice 
and uncertainty she was incurring. 

Great Britain and France, believing in the loyalty of 
the Petrograd Government, advised Roumania to come 
to terms with Russia. England fighting desperately on 
the Somme, and France strained to her uttermost over 
the defence of Verdun, showed their solicitude for the 
Latin sister by pledging to help her " by a general offen- 
sive of the Salonica army which should begin eight days 
before the date of the entry into the campaign of Rou- 
mania. The desire of France to help this new Ally was so 
sincere that M. Briand, then President of the Council, 
breaking all precedents, went so far as to announce in 
the Chamber the projected offensive of the Orient forces. 
The treason which unfortunately surrounded this army 
on all sides rendered it impossible for General Sarrail to 
carry out this plan at the opportune moment. Warned 
by the pro-Germans of Athens of the impending attack, 
the Bulgarian Army made the first move and, attacking 
on both flanks, obliged General Sarrail to regroup his 
forces, which paralysed his movements. Thus the 
Roumanian General Staff remained alone to face the 
Government of Petrograd." 1 

Meanwhile Stuermer's German agents had been busy 

1 National Review, August, 191 7. 



200 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 



intercepting and tampering with the shells, guns and 
aeroplanes sent out by the Allies and which had to pass 
through Russia. Whatever it was, some of the essential 
parts would be abstracted, and when the supplies eventu- 
ally reached Roumania, owing to the lack of raw material 
and factories there, it was found impossible to replace 
them, and much of it was useless. With regard to the 
twenty thousand cavalry horses promised, none were 
forthcoming ; venal evasions and excuses were the only 
acknowledgment vouchsafed to the Roumanian Govern- 
ment, and it was not until the representatives of France 
and Great Britain protested in the strongest terms that 
five thousand very inferior animals were sent. Of the 
promised machine guns not one could be obtained ; 
Protopopoff having mounted all he could get hold of on the 
roofs of the houses in Petrograd to quell the revolt he had 
provoked among a populace sick of the Stuermer rule. 

General Iliesco of the Roumanian General Staff has 
since told the world that the Berlin-Stuermer Agreement 
was planned so that Roumania should be overrun and 
devastated as far as the river Sereth to allow of the 
triumph of the Central Powers, enabling them to con- 
clude a separate peace in consequence of a defeat which 
would be represented as a Roumanian and not a Russian 
one. Russia's " face," as the Chinese say, would have been 
saved at the expense of the little Ally Roumania ! By 
this infamous intrigue Roumania was to be divided, 
between Russia and Austria. Russia was to annex 
Moldavia, while Austria-Hungary took Wallachia, and 
that was why the armies of Falkenhayn and Mackensen 
came to a stop at the Sereth. 1 

} Le Genevoin (cit. Gazzetia Ticinese, 17-111-17). 



THE VIA DOLOROSA 



201 



Thus Stuermer pretending to speak for the Allies "was 
merely the mouthpiece of Berlin, and by his quasi- 
ultimatum to Roumania to intervene in the war deliber- 
ately betrayed her." Bought with German money and 
intriguing under the cloak of his official position, he 
played with the fate of Roumania in order to " facilitate 
a premeditated act of treachery," both as regards his 
own country and the Allies. 

The Russian nation knew nothing of this sinister plot 
until the Revolution swept the traitors from their seats 
and disclosed their diabolical schemes. 

* * * * 

Pending the issue of the battle on the Arges, the 
utmost foreboding reigned in the capital : " Alternately 
in fear and hope, swung the grim pendulum of life and 
death." Immense numbers of wounded came pouring 
in. The hospitals were filled to overflowing and numbers 
of the beautiful houses of the wealthy had been utilized 
for the wounded. The Queen working nobly and assisted 
by her daughters, the Princesses Elizabeth and Marie, 
seemed everywhere at once, nursing in her hospital, com- 
forting the bereaved and dying, and seeing her soldiers 
off. With her arms full of flowers and gifts, she was at 
the station to wish them God-speed, her beautiful face 
anxious, but the eyes and lips bravely smiling at them, 
as the heavy train with its crowded human burden drew 
slowly out and away towards the red horizon. She barely 
took time to sleep, to eat, so great was her solicitude for 
all, so eager, so untiring her work, so anxious her tender 
heart for the suffering around her. 

She was facing the most tragic hours that can fall to the 
lot of any woman — for with the nightmare invasion of 



202 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 

her beloved land, she, the proud Englishwoman, was the 
target for the vilest slanders, lies and diatribes of fury 
that hatch and spring so easily from the unadulterated 
savagery of the Prussian mind. And in the midst of 
the carnage and desolation that was sweeping over the 
land, Death brooded over the Palace. All around the sons 
of mothers were dying. She was not to be spared. 

Fate stood in front of her demanding the supreme 
sacrifice — what she loved the most, the child of her heart, 
the most beloved, the little Prince Mircea. The little one, 
sobbing pitifully as he suffered, must be given up — 
nothing could save him. 

The terrible thunder of the guns shook and rattled the 
windows and walls of the nursery as she knelt by his 
bedside. The heavy lids would lift over the brown eyes, 
the fair childish head would turn on the pillow as the 
doctor neared the bed. The little hand lying so inert in 
his mother's would strengthen as he saw her silent tears 
falling slowly. The little voice, so soon to be silent, 
would huskily rally the doctor — the dear devoted 
" Docco " — saying with a twinkle in the glazing eyes, 
" pfui Docco, naughty Docco " — knowing that his little 
joke would chase the slow tears and bring the rare smile 
to his mother's face, so grave and saddened now. 

The little Prince, the pet and playmate of all, and 
around whom the happy family life of the Royal Family 
centred, was, in the words of his mother, " a stolid little 
fellow, very independent, strong-willed, and who always 
kept well in the middle of the road. He never would 
talk to me in any language but Roumanian, although he 
had a devoted English nurse and governess, and that I 
always talked English with my children. He was a great 



THE VIA DOLOROSA 



203 



joker and loved fun, and even when very, very ill would 
try to make me smile. He loved flowers and horses, and 
above all his little sister Ileana." 

Daily the terrible Taubes and Zeppelins bombed the 
Palace hoping to get a bag worthy of the acceptance of 
their war lord. What a prize for the award of the Iron 
Cross, to announce the slaughter of the beautiful children, 
to bomb a little child dying of typhoid, a broken-hearted 
woman kneeling by his bed! What rejoicings there 
would be as they sped the little soul to its Maker ! 

Seventy-two bombs were dropped around the Palace 
and in the gardens one morning alone, their shrieking, 
shattering explosions drowning with their murderous 
roar the gasping breath of the little lad, turning piteous 
eyes of terror to the white-faced woman by his side. The 
bright toys, the rocking-horse, the gay cheerfulness of 
the nursery — and close and ever closer the muffled foot- 
steps of approaching Death — the reverberation of the 
guns ! 

Could life hold a more piteous moment of agony — of 
renunciation — for the bowed and sobbing figure of the 
Queen ? Fate indeed was striking deep. 

The day following the death of the child, a more deter- 
mined effort than ever was made to wreck that part of 
the Palace in which the little figure was lying so quietly 
now. It was known that the Queen could hardly bear to 
leave the room. One of the bombs exploded in the passage 
outside just at the moment the painter Romani was 
going into the room to paint a portrait of the little dead 
Prince. He was killed at once, though the Queen and 
the body of the dead child escaped the horrible effects of 
the dastardly crime. 



204 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 

What can one say for such unutterable, such infamous 
deeds ? As some one has said : "If Hell were turned 
upside down ' Made in Germany ' would be found 
stamped on it." 

* * * * 

For Roumania these were indeed terrible days of 
anxiety. Bit by bit the heroic army were forced back, 
fighting stubbornly under overwhelming odds, exhausted, 
decimated, lacking everything, yet constantly winning a 
grudging acknowledgment of valour and resistance in the 
enemy's reports. 

The treachery of General Socec and the consequent 
defeat of the Roumanian armies had fallen on the capital 
like a thunderbolt. The excitement in these bitter days 
of winter was indescribable. The cry : " The Germans 
are coming " filled the populace with terror. 

But with unquenchable hope and faith they waited 
— with sinking hearts they waited and hoped. Where 
was the promised help from Russia ? Only two 
divisions had arrived. Where was the Brussilof offen- 
sive in Galicia that was to draw the enemy off ? 
The advance from Salonica ? But the Allies were too 
busy parleying and believing in the false protestations of 
neutrality of another traitor, Constantine, once of 
Greece. And Sarrail, immobilized and paralysed for lack 
of men, munitions and railroads, could not advance for 
the promised assistance. 

Roumania stood at bay facing her martyrdom alone. 
A tense pause seemed to hang over Europe as it watched 
the mortal struggle of the little nation, the cup raised — 
to be drained to its bitterest dregs. 

No reproaches passed her loyal lips. The heroic spirit 



THE VIA DOLOROSA 2,05 

of the past, the spirit that through the centuries had 
refused to be annihilated was supporting her sons in this, 
their supreme trial ! Well did she know the fate meted 
out to those the Hun conquered ! Belgium, Serbia, 
Montenegro — these were pictures seared into her brain 
by the flaming fingers of history. 

The decision to evacuate the capital was taken, and 
a nation poured out on to roads deep in snow, iron-bound 
in ice, towards the frozen bitter north. 

* * * * 

The early morning of December the 4th a terrific report 
shook the city. The arsenal had been blown up by the 
authorities. The last hope of saving the capital had dis- 
appeared. 

The next morning Mackensen sent an officer under flag 
of truce into the city calling upon it to surrender. He 
returned the next day to report that there was no fortress, 
no commander, and that the impressive and ostentatious 
ceremony of triumph the Germans had been looking for- 
ward to could not be enacted. When the Hun hordes 
poured in, with the exception of the great numbers of 
German and Austrian residents who had been battening 
as spies and who welcomed their countrymen with ardour, 
it was almost a deserted city. 

That night the horizon was aflame ; and blazing like 
the mouth of Hell were the great oilfields, one of the 
richest districts in the world. All the rich stores of 
grain, too, had been destroyed, burnt, or soaked in petrol, 
so the Hun, ravenous and bent on plunder, was baulked 
of his prey. 

The heroic Roumanian armies, fighting superbly with- 
out ammunition at the last, had escaped encirclement. 



206 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 



There was no Sedan, and an empty city was the con- 
queror's hollow triumph. 

* * * * 

Meanwhile the terrible winter of Eastern Europe, 
eighteen below zero, had settled down on the stricken 
country, enfolding in its glacial grip the famishing, home- 
less fugitives and wounded. 

During that ghastly retreat as much as £300 was paid 
for a taxi to carry someone's family away from the 
German hordes. Thirty thousand people waited at the 
station in the vain hope that a train would be provided 
to take them north. The few railways — the terrible 
crisis of the moment — had disorganized everything, and 
the supplying of the army was the first vital consideration 
of the Government. The congestion on the narrow roads 
— on the bridges — was so great that an inextricable 
wedged mass prevented progress. 

And all the time the ferocious Uhlans were at the heels 
of the terrified fugitives. The aged succumbed at once ; 
little ones, frozen and starved, lay by the wayside ; 
their heart-broken mothers dropped dead with exhaus- 
tion beside them ; and the wounded from the hospitals 
who could crawl, and even those who could hardly do so, 
dragged themselves along till cold, hunger and mortifica- 
tion ended their terrible suffering. The gallant little 
nation was indeed treading its Via Dolorosa — the bitter 
cup was being drained. 

From Bucharest they journeyed into a country of 
poverty and want ; everything was left — home, money, 
food ! 

< Surrounded on three sides by hordes of Turks, Bulgars, 
Magyars and Teutons, and lying at the very back of 

s 



THE VIA DOLOROSA 



207 



j Europe, there were no open arms to succour and help her 
I as England, France, America and Italy held out to Serbia 
5 and Belgium in their terrible flight. Money, food, cloth- 
I ing, shelter were provided for the fugitives there. Guns, 
I men, food, equipment, hospitals were sent to their sup- 
| port, and to sustain the remnants of their armies. 

But for Roumania no deliverer, no Samaritan was near. 
Surrounded by the horror and clamour of war, the stream 
of pitiful humanity fled northwards before the most 
vicious foe ever faced by mankind. Bit by bit they were 
driven back — and still back — past the homes and fields 
of the more prosperous land. 

" Over the death- strewn plains, 
Fierce 'mid the cold white stars," 

into the little remnant of beloved soil — the bleak northern 
province left them — frozen under its shroud of snow. 




CHAPTER XI 



A QUEEN AND HER PEOPLE 
By H.M. the Queen of Rou mania 
MY CHILD 

DEATH is sweeping over the earth ; in all 
| lands, beneath many suns, thousands of 
brave boys are giving their lives ; mothers are 
crying ; the earth is drinking nothing but 

blood. 

And because Death has become master, he stretches 
out his hand and wants also to pluck the buds that were 
to have flowered in the days to come — he stretches out 
his hand and tries to seize hold of my own treasure, of 
my last -born, of the child of my heart. 

There is not yet enough dying, enough sorrow, enough 
sacrifice — each woman must learn to give up what she 
loves, must weep, must hide her head in the dust. 

In these days, the sons of Queens are not allowed to 
throw away their lives in battle ; but, so that better I 
should understand the tears of every mother, Death has 
stolen into my house and stands there waiting, ready to 
tear from me my youngest, the most innocent, the one 
most without defence. 

There he lies on the narrow whiteness of his bed, fight- 
ing back some invisible terror which is too big. I seem 
to be struggling with him, yet all my love cannot help 

208 



A QUEEN AND HER PEOPLE 209 



him. I am powerless before his suffering, my anguish can- 
not lessen it, my tears cannot cool the fever in his blood. 

All around me the sons of mothers are dying and here 
within the walls of this guarded chamber my child is 
dying — and I cannot hold him back. He becomes 
the symbol of my country's tragedy ; he is wrestling 
against an enemy he is unable to overcome, whilst not 
far off, on all our frontiers our armies are struggling 
against invading forces that inch by inch are tearing the 
holy soil of home from beneath our feet. 

My child is powerless as my country is powerless ; our 
love, our prayers, our efforts, the spilling of our blood 
are in vain, for indeed there are hours that belong not to 
the will of man, but that belong to Fate . 

* * * * 

It is my birthday ! A day set apart for national re- 
joicing — and death stands waiting, waiting at the side of 
my child's bed. 

Others are also waiting for me ; my wounded are 
waiting, they too are my children, for days I have 
neglected them ; because of my cruel anxiety I have not 
been able to go to them, but they need me, their voices 
call me — too many need me ! Sometimes I feel as though 
it were too much, as though it would drive me mad. . . . 

Yet on this day, all have a right over me, I must for- 
sake no one, the most humble must be able to reach my 
heart. 

Flowers have been brought to me in fragrant profusion, 
the floor is strewn with them, they lie on the tables, they 
are massed on every chair, the air is filled with their 
perfume. 

What is the meaning of all these flowers ? Have they 
p 



2io ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 



been brought to me for a day of rejoicing, or for a day of 
—death ? 

Filling my arms with them I hurry to the beds of my 
wounded ; there is so little time — my child is dying. 
His voice is calling me back — but, oh, there are so 
many beds, so many ! Shall I ever reach the last ? 

What are they saying to me as they bend to kiss my 
hands ? I cannot clearly see their faces, for my eyes are 
full of tears. I cannot clearly hear their voices because 
of the throbbing of my anguished heart — what are they 
saying ? One name is on every lip — Mircea ! Mircea ! 
They are wishing health and recovery to the child of my 
heart. But he is dying. Know ye not that he is dying ? 
My heart cries out the awful certainty, and I bury each 
bed under my flowers as though in some dream-ritual 
I were decking with them the beds of the dead. 

* * * * 

Mircea is resting. . . . Mircea's struggle is over. . . . 
Mircea is at peace. . . . Mircea is dead. 

Now the chamber of suffering is silent, the screams are 
a thing of the past ; they belonged to earthly terrors 
— for Mircea all earthly terrors are passed. 

Like a little light that flickers and goes out, thus did 
he die — no more screams, hardly a sigh. He was tired, 
his heart could bear the strain no longer ; he was too 
small a fighter, so God let him die, like a little light that 
goes out — thus did God let him die. 

•* * * * 

Mircea is dead. 

All Souls' Day ! The leaves are falling, the heavens 
are weeping tears of regret, like a veil of mourning, mist 
covers the earth. 



A QUEEN AND HER PEOPLE 211 

All Souls' Day, and on the eve of this day, Mircea's 
soul has flown to God. 

The leaves are falling, the heavens are weeping tears 
of regret — like a veil of mourning, mist covers the 
earth. 

* * * * 

It is over. 

The grave is closed, a heavy stone lies over your face, 
the tapers have been put out, the solemn chants have 
died away, the flowers are tired, shadow fills the church. 

It is over. 

Neither my prayers nor my tears, neither my despair 
nor my suffering can bring you back to me, Mircea, my 
child. 

I saw how they lowered your tiny coffin down into a 
hole that was full of night ; so that less sombre should 
be that night I filled the gaping hole with flowers, flowers, 
flowers — and all the flowers were white. 

Then I left you, my Mircea. I turned my foot away 
from your place of rest, I turned it towards the empti- 
ness, towards the unfathomable void of the days that are 
to know you no more, I turned it back towards the house 
where your bed stands empty, whilst you lie so small and 
forsaken in your coffin under the ground. 

And yet I know, Mircea, that is only your poor little 
body that lies there under the ground ! 

This is not a time for mourning in darkened chambers, 
not a time for idle weeping, not a time for rest. 

My own sorrow must not separate me from others' 
sorrows, it must be but an added link between me and 
my people, not keep me from them at a time when they 
need me most. 



212 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 



My country is calling, although darkness has descended 
like a pall on my soul, once more must I take up my 
burden and walk. 

Whither shall I turn my saddened face ? To what beds 
of suffering, to what homes of woe ? Better for a while 
to listen to voices that awake no memory, to wander 
towards regions where he has never been, amongst 
strangers who did not know him, who saw not his hours of 
agony, who heard not his screams of pain. 

Better go away ! Whilst my wound is still bleeding, 
so that it should not be touched — go there where my pity 
is most needed, where my tears can flow freely, where it is 
no shame to weep ! 

* * * * 

Therefore I left the daily routine and went to many 
places, carrying my own grief amongst the most miserable 
and forsaken, carrying my breaking heart to those who 
needed no words, only caresses and gestures of love. 

As one but half conscious, I travelled through many 
parts of my land, motoring miles and miles along endless 
stretches at the dying season of the year ; I passed 
through peaceful valleys ; 'neath frowning mountain- 
sides, over plains where the fields were at rest, and my 
soul was one with this country, its agony was the agony 
of my heart, the cries of the wounded were the cries of 
the child I had lost, and when bending over the beds of 
the dying, I knew no more if it was for their woe I was 
weeping or for my own ! 

From those dark corners of suffering where the wounded 
lay huddled together, their marred and bleeding visages 
turned to the wall, from the land itself, from its invaded 
frontiers, from its fields, its villages, its towns and forests 



A QUEEN AND HER PEOPLE 213 

a mighty groan of anguish seemed rising towards the 
skies. I felt as though I must bend down and lift up all 
that anguish, lift it with both my hands and carry it 
away with me so as to relieve those less able to bear 
such a weight. 

Yet what could I do ? With the greatness of my Love 
could I save my country ? Had I with my Love even 
been able to save the life of my child ? 

BUCHAREST 

There is an hour of which I have never spoken — an 
hour of darkness and sorrow that I could share with no 
one, an hour when I had to carry my head very high so 
that none should see the tears in my eyes, an hour when 
naught else remained to me but to look beyond the things 
of this earth towards shadowy Futures that belong only 
to God. 

I had to be strong at that hour, not to cry out, not to 
complain, but to lead the way into exile very simply, 
very quietly, so as to avoid all panic, so that no one 
should be afraid. Others depended upon me, all eyes 
were turned towards me to see how I would bear that 
which was unbearable, so I was silent ; at that hour silence 
alone could help. 

Three months have passed since then, three long 
months — months that could be years, so full are they of 
anguish and pain and grief. Months that I have lived 
close to the heart of my people, months when I have 
heard their cries, and hoped their hopes and feared their 
fears. Months in which I have struggled with them and 
wept with them, doing all that was in my power to ease 
their burden and to dry their tears. 



214 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 

But if there are hours when silence alone can render 
bearable the duty one has to perform, there are others 
when one has a right to lift up one's voice and to cry out 
one's longing and one's regret. 

It is three months since Bucharest was taken from us, 
since the enemy struck at the heart of our land. Three 
months — and to-day I want all those who love and all 
those who weep and all those who regret, to turn their 
faces with mine towards that far-off distance and to 
remember that which we have lost. 

It is to me as though I must climb some very high 
mountain, up, up, till I reach its summit, so that from 
there I might perceive at least the smoke rising from 
that town which once was our loved and cherished 
centre and that now lies chained and silent 'neath the 
enemy's relentless sway. 

Yes, indeed, heart of our land ! Pulsing centre that 
held us together, fed our energies and filled us with pride. 
Who of us will ever forget those last days of anguish, 
when hope became always less, when from all sides the 
voice of the cannon called out its fearful message, called 
out its warning, telling us that danger was coming ever 
nearer — that soon it would be flight and exile and sorrow 
and darkness. 

Difficult it is to speak of one's own sorrow when the 
suffering of all was so great, yet if to-day I speak of 
mine, it is because I know that it is my country's sorrow, 
that a thousand thousand voices are echo to mine when 
I talk of that for which we are mourning ; of that which 
lies beyond the line of fire, that like a wound upon a 
mother's breast cuts our dear country in two. 

I wish my voice to reach every heart, to penetrate into 



A QUEEN AND HER PEOPLE 215 

every home, to go out towards the most miserable, to 
search out the hero on his bed of snow ; I want you all 
to know that I have wept with you, that there are none 
of your griefs that I have not shared, none of your 
despairs that I have not understood, none of your sacri- 
fices that I have not appreciated, but this message would 
I bring you : Hearts are bound more closely together in 
days of sorrow than in days of joy, in days of war than in 
days of peace. 

I cannot know for which special sorrow each man is 
mourning — I know not what house, what spot, what face 
he sees in his dreams, I know not to what hope he clings, 
to what joy he desires to go back ; there is a national 
sorrow and there is a personal sorrow, that last one each 
man carries alone in his heart. 

Bucharest ! Thy name conjures up pictures without 
end in the mind of those who have been obliged to sur- 
render thee to the hated foe. We remember thee with 
all thy faces, in sunshine, in rain and in snow, we remem- 
ber thee busy yet smiling, within thy streets all seemed 
happy ; it is to us, now that we are torn from thee, as 
though we had known naught but joy within thy embrace. 

What is thy face of to-day, oh Bucharest ? Hast 
thou veiled thyself in mourning because so many of thy 
children have fled ? Or dost thou wear a smile of false 
acquiescence, so as not to draw down upon thy trembling 
inhabitants the wrath of those who now call themselves 
masters and who perchance keep thee in better order 
than thine own children ever did. Have thy proudest 
buildings been desecrated with flags that are not dyed in 
the three holy colours before which each Roumanian un- 
covers his head ? 



216 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 



Have the blinds of thy windows been drawn down so 
that those who have remained should not see men in 
pointed helmets marching to and fro before the house of 
thy King ? Are the hospitals we prepared so tenderly 
for our wounded filled with foreigners that speak not our 
language, that mock at our sorrow, rejoicing over the 
misery they have strewn over our land ? 

O Bucharest, I left thee without a word of farewell, I 
who so often have been acclaimed in thy streets ! It was 
told that I must steal away from thee in silence, show no 
sorrow, say no good-bye, betraying no emotion so as to 
awaken no panic in the hearts of those who were to stay ! 

Like a traitor did I feel, like a coward, to leave thee 
thus to thy fate ! To go away, to know naught of thy 
sorrow, to leave thee, unprotected, to those who soon 
would suck thy heart's blood. 

And Cotroceni ! House that I love, house that little 
by little I have modelled to my taste, house that knows 
the voices of my children, in whose garden their baby- 
feet have toddled about. Cotroceni ! I left thee taking 
no leave of those who were to remain to protect thee, 
casting hardly a look upon the rooms that once had been 
my pride — I had the courage to smile into the face of the 
old family servants who looked at me anxiously as though 
divining that my silence hid some awful truth. 

Yes, I left thee — and from one, one only did I take 
leave ! But that one was so small and so silent that 
never will he relate what his mother said to him in that 
hour before her flight ! 

It was evening — the shadows were already stealing 
into the church, and with them I slipped into the sanc- 
tuary where a heap of white flowers spread a mystic light. 



A QUEEN AND HER PEOPLE 217 

And there beside that grave but so recently closed I tore 
from me the mask that all day I had worn, and cried out 
my pain to the little one, lying beneath the stones. 

I confessed to him that I was going — going not know- 
ing when I would come back. I asked him to forgive me 
for forsaking him, to forgive his mother for taking the 
five others with her, whilst she left him lonely, he who 
was smallest of all ! Left him to the mercy of those who 
soon would take possession of the places we had loved ! 

As I wept in solitary despair, it seemed to me that I 
heard the tread of the approaching armies, and shudder- 
ingly I realized that it was the breasts of our soldiers 
that were forming a rampart around our threatened 
home ! I thought of all those who still must fall before 
the enemy could reach this sacred door ! And with 
anguish I realized that I would no more be there to bind 
up their wounds, to console their defeat. 

Perhaps it was so that some vital part of my being 
should remain in our capital even after our retreat, that 
I was destined to leave my youngest there beneath the 
cold slabs of the church. Did perchance God tear him 
from us as a sign that all this sorrow, all this sacrifice is 
but a passing horror, that because Mircea lies there 
awaiting my return, that surely, surely I must come back ? 

When he died, the popular belief was that the Heavens 
had claimed from me a sacrifice, that God had taken my 
child from me that in his perfect innocence he should 
plead for the country he was destined to quit so soon ! 

So let it be ! For I believe in the day of return, I 
believe in the hour of victory, I believe that the blood of 
our heroes has not been shed in vain ! 

One day thy arms will be opened wide to receive us, 



218 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 

O Mother-town ! Flags will fly from thy windows, thy 
streets will be strewn with branches, and those who 
return to thy embrace will not know if their hearts are 
breaking with sorrow or with joy ! 

It lies in God's hand if I your Queen am to share that 
solemn hour with you — but this one boon do I ask of my 
people, that if my feet should not enter the dear city 
with you, carry all the flowers that you would have given 
me to the church where my little one lies, carry them 
there to his grave, heap them in masses above him, fill 
the whole church with flowers, so that he who so long was 
lonely should have a share in your songs of praise ! 

Marie, 



CHAPTER XII 



TO THE FROZEN NORTH 



In the steppe cruel wind skirleth, 

Speeding furiously, 
Round the low oaken cross 

Blizzard cheerlessly. Fet. 



Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain 
that they may live. — Ezekiel. 



their destiny as in those cruel days of a winter un- 
paralleled in its grim severity, when the very depths of 
human misery were reached. 

Her anguish has been all the deeper because it followed 
on the brilliant success of the early part of her campaign. 
The valiant ardour of her people was burning to avenge 
their suffering kinsmen and dreaming that Right must 
conquer Might, and giving nobly their all for the cause. 

In those tragic days of iron-bound winter a nation fled 
desperately before the unmentionable atrocities, torture, 
starvation and slavery that the Hun and Bulgar mete 
out to those they conquer, and which has made their 
names to stink in the nostril of every civilized being. 

Onward — despairing, starving, frozen, dying, the pitiful 
stream of agonised humanity pushed ; in icy blizzards, 

219 




EVER perhaps in all the long centuries of 
tyranny, oppression and bloodshed under- 
gone by Roumania, have her sons so needed 
the sustaining light and hope of faith in 



220 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 



snow that buried them as they fell, heart-broken and 
exhausted : slipping into the drifts never to rise again : 
sleeping in the arctic night never to wake again. 

Forward — the bleak lonely north looms — Russia, 
menacing, mysterious. Behind them, all that is most 
dear — the smiling south of yesterday, the homes so 
cherished — the life, the love, the happiness ! 

The whistling winter blast dies down. . . . The cold 
clear stars like sword-points glitter forth — the stars that 
have looked down upon the eternal ages, watching in 
silent stillness the tragedy and travail of man ! 

A grey dawn creeps up like a ghost from the sullen 
silence of the wind-swept steppes. . . . Bleak and brooding 
it pauses before the tragic scene — then lashing its shroud 
of sleet, cuts like a whip in the faces of the stricken 
fugitives. 

Like a lantern of light down the desolate, unending 
road flashes the ancient words of comfort, of hope ; 
words that sustained their ever-battling, never despairing 
forefathers — Romanul nul piere — the Roumanian neve r 
dies ! 

* * * * 

And close to the bleak inhospitable steppes, the seeth- 
ing anarchical frontier of Russia, near the river Pruth, 
that river of ill-omen which divides Roumania from her 
jost province of Bessarabia, stands Jassy, the old capital 
of Moldavia — the little bit of northern land — all that is 
left to the despairing and stricken country. 

To this town the Court, Government, Legations and 
the vast stream of wounded and fugitives retired. Urgent 
measures were taken to try and relieve the awful suffering 
and distress. But the difficulties were stupendous and 



TO THE FROZEN NORTH 221 



the means to overcome them almost nil. The catastrophe 
was so swift, so appalling, that the nation reeled under it. 

The King, the kindliest, gentlest of men, had aged 
greatly in appearance and his face, deeply lined with the 
terrible anxiety weighing upon him, was showing a 
splendid fortitude and courage. Princesses Elizabeth 
and Mariorara were nursing in the hospitals as hard as 
any of the nurses, and doing everything and anything that 
he could was young Prince Nicolas, in his Boy Scout 
uniform driving his little car which was generally full of 
all sorts of things for hospitals, wounded, etc. The 
Queen working superbly and with heroic devotion, cease- 
lessly strove to alleviate the misery, and cope with the 
great streams of wounded pouring in. The little city was 
taxed to the uttermost and quite unable to find accom- 
modation for the four million people that crowded into 
it for refuge. 

A friend, a very well-known Englishman, there at the 
time wrote me : " It is difficult to adequately describe 
the suffering, to find words to express the terrible state 
of affairs or give a real idea of the awfulness of the 
position." Virtually the whole civil population was on 
the verge of starvation. The hastily organized hospitals 
were lacking in everything— equipment, disinfectants, 
drugs, etc., had to be deserted in the retreat and had 
fallen into the hands of the enemy. It was of highest 
importance to replace them at once, and yet to obtain 
them at first almost impossible. 

Plague, pestilence and famine were rife, the few 
hospitals were filled to repletion, and the overflow of 
wounded and diseased were scattered in the various 
houses and buildings in the overcrowded town. Supplies 



222 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 



of drugs, dressings and chloroform were completely 
exhausted, and the mortality from and suffering during 
operations and amputations from the want of anaesthetics, 
dressings and disinfectants was indescribably terrible. 

Can you understand Roumania's plight ? Do you 
realize that nothing can enter this country — the Back 
Door of Europe — save through the north ? 

From the south, east, west, not one grain of wheat — 
not one strip of bandage could reach that stricken land — 
except by the long narrow path through Norway, Sweden, 
Russia — weeks en route. 

Typhus and cholera were raging, and so limited was 
the accommodation that these cases could not be isolated 
and had to be housed with the wounded. What hope 
could there be for the latter — debilitated, exhausted by 
wounds and lack of food — of escaping this added terror ? 
These appalling diseases ravaged army and civilian 
population alike. Two hundred doctors as well as many 
nurses succumbed in a few weeks, after working heroically 
amidst the most distressing circumstances, with a superb 
self-sacrifice and devotion, and lacking nearly everything 
that was vitally indispensable for their work. 

Roumania produces no soap and little coal, and there 
was none forthcoming. All supplies had fallen into the 
hands of the enemy. Imagine the want of these in 
hospitals during an arctic winter ! No heating, no 
sterilizing, no washing of wounds, clothes, floors. Think 
what this meant ! 

My friend writes me again : "I have myself seen with 
my own eyes men virtually dying of starvation and disease 
because there was nothing but paper swabs, or some saw- 
dust with which to dress their wounds and — when the 



TO THE FROZEN NORTH 223 

men had been already without food for days — nothing 
to build them up in the shape of nourishment. With 
twenty degrees below zero, though there was plenty of 
wood in the country, there was nothing to heat the hos- 
pitals with. The roads deep in snowdrifts were impass- 
able, and the great mortality among the horses and oxen 
owing to lack of fodder, the shortage of labour (every 
able male being with the army and ail vehicles requisi- 
tioned) made it impossible to remedy the want for a 
while." 

Disease and hunger claimed many more victims than 
the Hun foe did, and the peasants — such patient souls, 
enduring everything so uncomplainingly — would drag 
themselves into Jassy, staggering exhausted after a 
tramp in the snow of fifteen to twenty miles to beg for 
some food for their children. Matches were so scarce 
that even in the bitter weather crowds of men would 
gather at street corners on the look out for some one to 
pass, who might have a lighted cigarette, and the moment 
one appeared there would be a wild but polite scramble 
to beg his permission to light their cigarettes from his, in 
the vain endeavour to still the cold and hunger paralysing 
them. The Russians would give three hundred roubles for 
a tiny bottle of scent or eau-de-Cologne which they would 
drink. Another friend wrote me : — 

" The agony of it all has nearly killed the Queen. 
During the month of March in Jassy alone, there were 
over nine thousand patients down with typhus, scarlet 
fever, cholera and diphtheria — and no isolation hospitals. 
Dangerously wounded men had to lie next most infectious 
cases. I think I am as thick-skinned as anyone with 
what I have seen since the commencement of this war 



224 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 

and my two previous wars, but I tell you that if you 

could print the word awful in the biggest letters that 

were ever dreamt of in size, and the greater you printed 

the word, the more it would emphasize the meaning, you 

could not print it big enough to adequately describe 

matters as they are here." 

Well men died returning to their regiments, deteriorated 

from lack of food and clothes. One train of seven hundred 

wounded arrived, after being detained in a blizzard, with 

only eighty men alive ! And these splendid, famished, 

wounded sons of Roumania were found clasped close in 

each other's arms, trying in the agony of starving and 

freezing misery to keep a little life, a little warmth in their 

maimed and tortured bodies. 

* * * * 

" Clime of the unforgotten brave, 
Whose land from plain to mountain cave 
Was freedom's home or glory's grave ! 
Shrine of the mighty, can it be 
That that is all remains of thee ? " 

This, the little strip of territory, the bleak bare north 
was all now that was left Roumania of her wide, beautiful, 
and prosperous land. She faced the disaster unflinchingly, 
and by the middle of January the remnant of the Rou- 
manian Army had been skilfully withdrawn to the 
defences on the line of the river Sereth. 

After stubborn fighting the best North German regi- 
ments, under General von Kuhne, took the little town of 
Manesti, on the right bank of the Sereth. The gain was 
barren and they were unable to develop their success, 
while the rigours of a winter that surpassed all records 
put a stop to any operations on a large scale. Local and 
minor engagements were constantly taking place, how- 



TO THE FROZEN NORTH 



225 



ever, and the grim struggle continued ; a fight against 
nature as well as man. 

An officer fighting there thus describes it : — 
" Up to now winter in the forests of the Carpathians 
had been only playing with men ; now it showed its 
teeth and turned to grim earnest. In the high mountains 
the roads hitherto ran, like soft ribbons of velvet, over 
the passes. Now they were like hard bands of steel, 
hard, shining bands of steel, binding together the con- 
secutive valleys. They were like perfect toboggan runs ; 
the lorries skidded and swerved on them out of control, 
side on to the road before you knew. 

" No more soft covering of snow, only hard iron naked- 
ness. Cloudless, starry nights. The earth rings like 
metal, the trees snap, wolves leave the forests and run 
on the open road. Friend and enemy lie out on the 
mountain side opposite to each other, frozen to the 
marrow. 

" No strategy has ever foreseen that this country 
would once become a theatre of war. These mountains 
look as wild and desolate as any bits of unknown Asia ; 
forests untouched by any woodman's hand, protected, it 
would seem by their own loneliness and inaccessibility. 
Only here and there runs a little light railway looking 
most unmilitary and casual. Every road in these moun- 
tains is roundabout ; there is no connection from one to 
the other of the long valleys which traverse them, except 
tracks of smugglers and poachers. At the entrance of 
the valleys which lead from Moldavia into Transylvania, 
or at their exit, you may see perhaps an insignificant 
village ; no other human habitation near, if it be not a 
saw mill or the house of the customs guard on the fron- 
Q 



226 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 



tier. Fires and winds have ravished the forests. In 
places the great trees lie prostrate like straw, their heads 
to the east, their withered roots heaving up masses of dry 
earth, and they are covered by an impenetrable tangle of 
boughs. 

" Elsewhere the war has found territory prepared for 
it, here it breaks as a strange thing into the primeval 
forest. Here man has to start at the beginning the work 
of the reclaiming of the wilderness, not for food and 
habitation, but for war. Roads and railways have been 
made — for the war. 

" The air in the valley is like ice : the high plateau on 
which we stand is surrounded by mountain ranges, like a 
little Thibet, its atmosphere dim with ice-cold winter 
vapours. Curiously as you mount higher you feel it 
grow warmer, in the daytime at any rate. At night the 
frost is uniformly cruel everywhere, and in this mur- 
derous wintry desolation men dig themselves into the 
iron ground, stalk each other, storm these God-forsaken 
and nameless heights, defend them to the death as if 
they were possessions of the greatest price. There is the 
noise of the axe in the virgin forest, roads force their way 
through the chaos of fallen trees. 

" Buzzards and vultures hover overhead, then sud- 
denly fly off scared as the report of a gun resounds in the 
forest underneath and splinters of trees are thrown high 
in the air. A she-bear with her two cubs comes stumbling 
on our picket, stands on her hind feet for a time before 
the strange apparition, swaying her head. The picket 
dare not shoot for fear of arousing the enemy. Man and 
beast stand perplexed face to face till the old bear shuffles 
off again into the thicket. 



TO THE FROZEN NORTH 227 



" Huts have been built in the wilderness, but one has 
to remember in the darkness the wolves which inhabit 
the forest. A staff officer of our division was besieged in 
an outlying hut by wolves who howled and whined out- 
side till some soldiers scared them off. The battle fronts 
in this gruesome war measure by the thousands of miles, 
but nowhere is there a region more wild, more desolate 
and less inhabitable. 

" I stand in the darkness in front of our hut and look 
at the stars which shine in a narrow strip of sky above 
the valley. A regular ticking sound is heard through the 
night, like the beating of a nervous, anxious, diseased 
heart. Again and again an endless, restless ticking. The 
typewriter — in the snow-covered mountains, in the midst 
of primeval forests — the typewriter in the office of the 
staff. Perhaps the ticking signifies an order to attack, a 
report of losses in battle or a request for reinforcements. 
Here, on the Moldavian border, humanity has reverted 
to its original wild condition, and yet this ticking tries to 
speak of the ages that have passed over the earth. Steadily 
long lines of letters are drawn, one after the other, and a 
faint hope revives in one's heart that there may yet be a 
return from our fall, a return to civilization." 1 

No one will ever know what the sufferings the Rou- 
manian Army went through. A little has filtered through, 
but the full tale of horror they endured in this ferociously- 
unequal contest with a savage, highly experienced, cruelly 
vindictive foe will never be known. 

Added to the lack of equipment which made itself felt 
after the first successes, and during the retreat, when 
sticks and stones were used, and rifles had to be taken 

1 Correspondent in The Times History of the War. 



228 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 



from the enemy dead, they were terribly hampered indeed, 
often sacrificed by the inexperience and negligence of 
some of their officers. 

General Averescu, who like our late Chief of the Im- 
perial General Staff, General Sir W. R. Robertson, has 
risen from the ranks, is a man of iron character, stern 
and resolute. Cowards receive short shrift from him 
whoever they are, and several were court -mart ialled and 
shot for this offence. To the brave and the efficient he is 
a true friend. His interest, contact and knowledge of 
the men under him is very close, and he is quick and 
generous in rewarding valour and devotion to duty. 

Under his regime a great number of the generals who 
took part in the opening events of the war have been 
relieved of their commands or given less responsible 
posts, while the commanders of the divisions are all 
young men, not promoted according to seniority, but 
who have given undoubted proof of their ability, and 
who inspire confidence among the men. 

Full justice must be given to him and his capable 
Chief of Staff, General Presan, for the ability and fortitude 
displayed in the tragic retreat. After the first brief 
successes General Averescu quickly grasped the grave 
elements of danger, and by the skilful defence of the 
passes, and the best disposition possible of his small 
armies, prevented the complete annihilation and encircle- 
ment of his forces, aimed at by the enemy. 

Standing with their backs to the wall, ill-equipped, in- 
expert in warfare and unsupported, the gallant little army 
during ten terrible weeks put up an heroic defence marked, 
as Colonel Buchan has said, by " conspicuous instances 
of Roumanian qualities in the field. The battles of 



TO THE FROZEN NORTH 229 

Hermannstadt and the Striu Valley, the defence of the 
Predeal, Torzburg and Rothen Thurm Passes, the first 
battle of Tarjul Jiu and Presan's counter-stroke on the 
Arges, were achievements of which any army might be 
proud. And the staunch valour of the Roman legionaries 
still lived in the heroic band who under Anastasiu cut 
their way from Orsova to the Aluta." 

With regard to the splendid peasant soldier of Rou- 
mania he is in many respects somewhat like the Poilu. 
He is perhaps more sturdily built, has perhaps a squarer, 
simpler character and face ; bright intelligent eyes, a 
quick friendly smile with the dignity and ease of manner 
of the man who has lived much with nature ; fearless, 
steady, patient, resourceful, these are the lessons the great 
Mother teaches her sons in forest, plain or mountain, and 
these were the qualities he had to show in this desperate 
struggle. The Roumanian peasant is splendid military 
material, and is more civilized than his neighbours, Slav, 
Turk, or Magyar. Patient, sober, tenacious and capable 
of great effort his love and devotion for his country is 
intense, and the ardour and fury of sacrifice in defence of 
his land is very touching and wonderful. Impulsive and 
ready to leap to a white heat of fury, he has a tender 
heart for suffering, be it for friend or foe ; and none of 
the ferocious savagery found in the Turk, the Bulgar, the 
Hun and the Magyar is found in his nature. Hamilton 
Fyfe, who knows them well, says that they put into prac- 
tice the teaching of Epictetus, that everything has two 
handles ; one handle is that " enemies are enemies, the 
other handle is that they are fellow-men." 



CHAPTER XIII 



AT BAY 

The Hun now satiated with blood and booty, still trampling in 
blood and ashes in an orgy of lust and robbery on Belgium, Poland, 
Serbia, Roumania. — Frederic Harrison. 

WITH the fall of Bucharest the curtain de- 
scended on the final scene of the first act of 
the tragedy. The wide sweep of Teutonic, 
Bulgar and Turkish forces, all that means 
reaction, rapine, barbarism and murder had engulfed 
three-fourths of the country. The Great Adventure 
launched with such high hope, for justice and freedom 
for the oppressed, was well-nigh crushed, and the bar- 
barian Powers, like blatant cocks atop the cinder heaps, 
were raucously crowing their exultation over the defeat 
of the small opponent. It had, however, taken the picked 
troops of four Powers with their two most famous 
generals to accomplish this feat ! 

For the moment Roumania's resistance had been 
pulverized. German troops had forced open the last 
remaining gateway to the East and had now in their 
covetous grasp the fertile lands producing the great 
yields of grain, cattle, oil and minerals so essential for 
the continuance of the Teutonic struggle. 

The success of the great ' pincers ' offensive of the 
Central Powers — a converging movement of two large 
armies endeavouring to crush their opponent between 

230 



AT BAY 



231 



them — which had been carried out in the offensive against 
the Russians on the Narew, at Tannenberg, Augustovo 
and in Eastern Prussia, had been closely followed in the 
strategy of the Roumanian campaign. 

According to the Hindenburg-Ludendorf plans, General 
von Falkenhayn, advancing in the north and north-west, 
with the object of attacking the Roumanian armies, was 
to be supported by General von Mackensen operating to 
the south between the Dobrudja and the Carpathians. By 
means of the Teutonic, Bulgar and Turkish troops they 
were to enclose within their grip the small Roumanian 
Army, which, unsupported and ill equipped, had to defend 
a line much more extensive than that held by the British, 
French and Belgian armies on the Western front. 

Let us carefully note this, for few of us in the British 
Isles realize the tremendous extent of front, and the 
terrible strain this small nation had to bear to withstand 
the picked forces of the war-seasoned, and highly equipped 
armies of the Teutonic fighting machine, with all their 
advantages of interior lines and splendid railway service, 
great factories and reserve of war material. According 
to their calculations the Roumanian armies would be cut 
in half, and three-fourths of them probably annihilated. 
They aimed at winning the whole of Roumania, Bess- 
arabia and Southern Russia up to Odessa, thus giving 
them the immense grain and oil fields, and the command 
of the Black Sea and the whole of the Danube. All this 
would greatly mitigate the acute economic problems 
facing them at home, and would replenish their larder, 
while depriving the Russian and Roumanian armies of 
their most fertile lands, and so thereby diminishing their 
powers of resistance. 



232 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 



To the north along the Moldavian border the Russians, 
under Generals Kaledin and Lechitsky, the conquerors of 
Lutsk and Czernovitz, were holding the line against the 
Austro-German forces of Generals Kovess, von Arz, and 
Gerok, under the supreme command of a blue-blooded 
figurehead the Archduke Charles Francis Joseph. Further 
south General von Falkenhayn's ninth German Army 
was operating, while Field-Marshal von Mackensen held 
the supreme command from Dorna Vatra to the Black Sea. 

Until January Wallachia still remained the principal 
field of operations. By this time the Russian reinforce- 
ments had arrived, but all the skill of the Russian Generals 
was unable at this late hour to counterbalance the terrible 
omission, the criminal negligence, disorganization and 
treachery of the Stuermer administration. 

It was the old, old story. Too late ! Too late ! Half 
the forces if sent in time might have saved the country ; 
now that the disaster had happened and the unhappy 
nation and army were in retreat, the invasion looked as if 
it could not be stayed. 

Tulcea, one of the most important towns in the Dob- 
rudja, and a big commercial centre, fell. Inhabited by a 
mixed population of Roumanians, Russians, Jews, Greeks, 
Armenians, Turks, it is a flat town of low buildings and 
fishermen's huts ; lying on the western fringe of the 
Delta, it is divided by the Danube from Russia. 

Braila, the fourth largest town in Roumania with a 
population of seventy thousand, had also to be evacuated. 
The headquarters of the grain trade and chief port of 
Wallachia, it was a thriving and prosperous town on the 
Danube. British steamers of four thousand tons could 
load and unload at its wharves, where great grain elevators 



AT BAY 



233 



and warehouses were established. Everything that could 
be of value to the enemy had been removed. The shops 
were empty and shuttered, and hardly a bootlace, shirt 
or tin of food could be bought or commandeered by the 
hungry hosts of the invader. 

From Braila the German armies swept up towards 
Focsani, and their ultimate aim was to turn the line of 
the Sereth and invade Bessarabia and the direct road to 
Odessa. 

:p£ * * * * 

By January the actual battle front lay roughly on a 
line of about 135 miles from Galatz, at the junction of the 
Sereth with the Danube, to Focsani and the Gyimes Pass 
in the Carpathians. North of Galatz lies the southern 
portion of the valley of the Sereth, six to ten miles wide ; 
a region of marshes, swamps and minor streams. Few 
roads exist here, indeed not a single one crosses it below 
Momoloasa, half-way to Focsani. Beyond Focsani the 
valley of the middle Sereth stretches a distance of some 
thirty miles, and was considered to be the weakest part 
of the line ; the river, no very serious obstacle, cutting 
its way between level plains free from marsh. 

The line north of this lies among the Carpathian ranges. 
The ground here, difficult enough in summer, was im- 
penetrable in winter ; a pathless snow-bound waste, of 
giant forest, wolf -haunted ; grim mountain peaks and 
lonely mist-enshrouded valleys. 

This line, the line of the Sereth, was the first strong 
continuous line across Roumania since the enemy had 
burst through the line at Targul Jiu early in September. 
It was a well acknowledged strategical front even before 
the war, and in all the plans considered by the Roumanian 



234 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 

General Staff in case of hostilities with Russia or the 
Balkans had played a prominent part. A system of 
fortresses built by the Belgian engineer Briaulmont, and 
completed under the supervision of German experts, ran 
along the river. The fortifications, consisting of ten 
groups of batteries arranged in three lines on a front of 
ten miles, formed the eastern bastion ; the centre, over 
a front of twelve miles, consisted of eight groups in two 
lines, while around Focsani they extended in a circle of 
fifteen miles, forming fifteen groups in three rows. Un- 
fortunately they had neither been planned with a view 
to withstanding hostilities except from the north, nor 
were they proof against the heavy artillery of modern 
times, but they could still be utilized as bases for defence. 

By the middle of January the enemy was held on this 
line. The strength of the wings, protected by the moun- 
tains on the north and the wide Danube to the south, 
prevented the narrowness of the weaker centre being 
rushed by the enemy, and unless the latter could wrest 
the position of strength from the Roumanians among the 
Carpathians to the north, or on the marshes of the Lower 
Sereth, they had little chance of breaking through the 
centre without subjecting their flank and rear to a 

counter-attack. 

■* # * * 

This first winter of war, unparalleled in its arctic 
severity, had gripped the land ; and the resistance of the 
army, Russian as well as Roumanian, standing on their 
new and stronger line, prevented any very active offensive 
on the part of the enemy. The disaster and desolation 
that had engulfed the beautiful and prosperous country 
— now, more than ever, and tragicalfy so, the Belgium of 




AT BAY 235 

the East — only served to quicken into stronger life and 
endurance the spirit of the nation. 

Steadily and staunchly the battered, starving and 
decimated remnant of the army was withdrawn to be 
reorganized. The devotion of all ranks, their burning 
indignation against the insolence of the enemy's calcula- 
tions, and his premeditated atrocities aroused among the 
manhood and youth of the country a fine martial spirit. 
The Government had taken the precaution of ensuring 
that no males between the ages of sixteen and sixty should 
remain in the occupied territory to become the slaves and 
helots of the Hun. Under the untiring efforts of the 
French instructors they were rapidly attaining a high 
state of soldier-like efficiency. 

With the breaking up of the bleak misery of the cruel 
winter, with its incredible tale of disease, starvation and 
suffering, hope eternal, like the tender green shoots 
forcing their way through the barren looking waste of 
earth, was building up the hearts of Roumania's sons 
anew. Strong in the belief of their ultimate destiny they 
were keen to affirm their right to defend not only their 
territory, but their country's name before the world and 
history. 

They were realizing to the full that what was required 
in the stern test before them was an unshakable deter- 
mination, an unflinching will to see the struggle through. 
They looked to their political leaders as well as their 
generals for a calmness, a foresight and sagacity that would 
guide them safely, avoiding all false moves through the 
last phase of their desperate struggle. Their enemy, 
seeking to undermine their resistance in another way, had 
launched a determined and insidious campaign of propa- 



1 



236 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 

ganda amongst the military and civil population. This 
was done through those Germans naturalized as Rou- 
manian subjects, as well as German agents dressed as 
Russians and speaking the language fluently, who en- 
deavoured to persuade the people that as the country 
was occupied and Russia ablaze with revolution from one 
end to another, a separate peace, backed up as their 
proposal was by deceptive promises of innumerable 
advantages, was their surest deliverance and hope. 

But serious though the plight of the nation was, tragic 
the desolation and suffering, scant the succour or support 
they could expect from their flaming and anarchical 
neighbour Russia, yet our gallant little Ally, pressed 
back to the uttermost limits of her country, held her 
head up bravely, defying the menace and mendacious 
wiles of the enemy to make her break her bond. 

Unsupported and alone the sixteen divisions which 
represented Roumanians whole army had fought with the 
superb courage of despair thirty-seven supremely equipped 
divisions, the elite of the German Army. Even a Power 
like Italy and her army, valiantly as they had fought, 
had nearly yielded to the onslaught of thirty-three divisions 
composed of Austrians. 

Of the 620,000 soldiers who had leapt to arms in 
August, 1916, for the liberation of Transylvania, theirs 
by heritage and blood, only a third remained. Over 
200,000 had been killed or wounded, while about 100,000 
had been taken prisoners, cut off in the retreat and sur- 
rounded by the hosts of Falkenhayn and Mackensen. 

Though the year ended in tragedy and disaster the 
virile intrepid spirit of the nation endured. She felt her 
sacrifice and suffering would not be in vain if by drawing 



AT BAY 



237 



down upon herself the thirty-seven picked divisions of the 
enemy's forces — which would otherwise have been em- 
ployed on the Western front — she had helped the cause of 
the Allies and contributed towards the superb and 
historic triumph of the French at Verdun. 

**'■■*'* 
But the army, exhausted by the incessant battles and 
hardships of the long four months' retreat, was almost 
worn out. Some few divisions, five in number, commanded 
by General Averescu, supported by the Russian divisions, 
continued to hold the front line on the Sereth, while the 
remainder were withdrawn to the rear. France and 
England took up the task of supplying the munitions and 
material necessary to equip the exhausted forces, which in 
the desperate struggle had been shorn of a considerable 
proportion of their effectives, while a large quantity of 
arms and munitions had fallen into the hands of the 
enemy. 

The work necessitated almost superhuman efforts ; 
armaments and munitions had to come by sea to Arch- 
angel, and then had to be transported across the whole 
length of Russia from north to south. The depth of 
winter, the disorganization and chaos consequent on the 
revolutionary condition of Russia, the peculation and 
insufficiency of railway transport made it a long uncertain 
proceeding. 

Roumania possesses only one railway line running 
northwards, and that a single one connecting Moldavia 
with Russia. This was the only route by which it was 
possible to feed or succour the country. At Ungheni, the 
frontier railway station, the congestion was indescribable. 
The whole needs of a nation, and a nation destitute of 



238 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 

everything, had to pass over this solitary line. It was 
her only avenue of supply, and it was tried to the utter- 
most, for the Russian reinforcements were now pouring 
in (great in bulk but lacking much in equipment), and the 
lew roads deep in snow rendered transport by them 
almost impossible. 

The arrival of the Russian reinforcements permitted 
General Averescu to divide the Roumanian Army into 
two groups ; one was withdrawn to be reorganized, 
while the remainder, constituting the Second Army, 
continued to fight in the front line under his command. 
General Averescu is a man of few words, and a severe 
disciplinarian. He is tall and of very spare physique with 
shrewd deep-set eyes set in a seamed thought-worn 
brown face, over which lies an expression of melancholy. 
His temperament is a stern and vigorous one, but his 
sternness and strictness are mitigated by his strong sense 
of justice and the intimate knowledge and interest he 
shows in all ranks ; his readiness to acknowledge merit, 
to promote gallantry and resource, and his prompt and 
generally personal awards for bravery have inspired the 
army and nation with a whole-hearted confidence in his 
leadership. 

A general overhaul of the various commands in the 
army commanded his instant attention. A great number 
of the generals who had taken part in the early part of 
the campaign were relieved of their posts ; some were 
given minor commands in towns, other pensioned and 
some court -martialled. Young officers who had proved 
their capacity and worth in the stern ordeals of the re- 
treat were made divisional commanders, and staff pro- 
motion by seniority was replaced by that of choice by 



AT BAY 



239 



assured capacity. All this had an excellent effect on the 
spirit and confidence of the troops. 

The French Military Mission which had arrived at the 
most tragic moments of the country's fate — the dark 
days preceding the evacuation of the capital — had inspired 
the nation with new hope and courage, and they had been 
accorded a delirious welcome by the people. The Mission 
was headed by General Berthelot, an officer who had 
greatly distinguished himself at the battle of the Marne, 
and primed with the vast experience of two years' inten- 
sive warfare on the Western front, proved of the utmost 
value in collaborating with General Averescu in re- 
organizing the shattered Roumanian Army. 

The work of drilling the new recruits proceeded 
energetically. After a few months' drilling these were 
gradually incorporated among the old units, and after 
three or four weeks' drilling with the men- of the Old 
Army, were drafted to the front to replace other exhausted 
groups who retired behind the line for rest and re- 
organization. The arms and munitions supplied were 
different from those the Roumanian Army had hitherto 
employed, and the troops had to be instructed in their 
use. All this was accomplished in the face of almost 
insuperable difficulties of equipment, housing, food, etc., 
and the desperate battle against disease of the most 
virulent kind which had to be fought, and which, owing 
to the want of food, clothing and medical stores, and 
accentuated by the bitter winter weather, made the most 
ghastly ravages among both officers and men. Yet in 
spite of all this, within five months another army of seven 
divisions was able to take its place in the firing line. 



240 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 

A speech from King Ferdinand at this time declared in 
ringing accents that notwithstanding the tragedy of the 
past Roumania would go on to victory with her great 
Allies, proud to fight with them. She had entered the 
side of the Entente by reason of her Latin race and 
tradition, for the freedom of her kinsmen, and because 
if she neglected her mission her position would become 
that of a vassal to another Power. It was a struggle 
between his conscience and his heart, said the King, but 
" my conscience triumphed. The Germans say, ' Ger- 
many above all.' I said, ' My duty above all.' " 

But it needed all the courage and natural resilience of 
the nation to face the terrible conditions confronting 
them of devastating disease, lack of food and the dis- 
organization consequent on the retreat and which could 
not be remedied at once. The Revolution in Russia had 
flamed forth, its frenzy of military insubordination and 
industrial upheaval, its ceaseless and futile orgies of 
talk, ' blether ' as the practical Scot would call it — the 
eternal never-ending committees of every description 
consuming the precious hours of day and night and 
paralysing all effort and action. 

The Russian troops in Roumania, though not so de- 
moralized as their brothers on the Russian front, were 
sporting the Red Badge, and with the crafty insidious 
help of German agents in their ranks were endeavouring 
to spread the same canker of rot and dissatisfaction among 
the ranks of the Roumanian soldiers. 

But the Latin temperament of the Roumanians was a 
tougher, less impracticable and visionary one than the 
Slav. The chaotic conditions in Russia did not appeal to 
them ; they had suffered too terribly to risk losing the 



AT BAY 



little left them, and honour and loyalty were very dear 
to them. The splendid and constitutional attitude of 
the King and Queen, the unselfish devotion they had 
shown their suffering people, soldiers and civilians alike, 
in these unprecedented days of misery, only served to 
deepen their loyalty to the dynasty' — more than ever 
now Roumanian — and root it firmly in the heart of the 
nation. 

* * * * 

A very touching and important link in the history of 
the nation's racial sentiment and union was forged in 
July, 1917, when a large number of Austrian prisoners of 
Roumanian descent from the Banat and the Bukovina, 
captured by the Russians in the earlier months of the 
war, petitioned to be allowed their release and the honour 
of fighting with their Roumanian brothers against their 
former oppressors, and the privilege of striking a blow 
for the union of their race. More than eighty thousand 
of the total of prisoners had petitioned, and the first 
draft arriving from Russia provoked an extraordinary 
outburst of enthusiasm. 

The Roumanians fully realized the signification of this 
act. For these prisoners had enjoyed the most con- 
siderate treatment in Russia, and it was a wonderful and 
spontaneous evidence of the desire of the race for union 
that had impelled them to incur afresh the dangers and 
trials of the battle-field under the Roumanian flag, the 
only one to them that counted. 

The ceremony at which they took the oath of allegiance 
was held in the open in the presence of the King, members 
of the Royal Family, the Ministers, General Berthelot 
and the Members of the French Military Mission, and 



242 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 

General Tcherbatchefi, Second in Command of the 
Russian Forces operating in Roumania. 

Mass was celebrated under a sun that poured a gorgeous 
benediction on to the packed and waiting multitude. As 
soon as it was over a great wave of melody floated out 
from the ranks of the " brothers from over the Car- 
pathians." Deep and stirring the notes swelled forth, 
first the Royal Hymn, then the patriotic song the " Des- 
teapta-te, Romane diu somnul eel de moarte " (Awake, 
thou Roumanian, from the sleep of death), written during 
the Transylvanian Rising in 1848. The great burst of 
music rolled forth in the dancing sunlight, pouring from 
hearts surcharged and suffering, yet unconquerable in 
their hope of freedom and reunion, and ready to give 
their lives for it. It was a deeply touching moment, and 
many a heart quickened and eye glistened tearfully at a 
scene which symbolized the beginning of the realization 
of their ancient dream, and which crowned in some small 
measure all they had lost and suffered in endeavouring to 
obtain. 

The new troops, accompanied by French officers, these 
splendid Allies who have upheld the banners of historic 
France like Paladins, marched past the King amid 
thunderous applause, carrying the flags of Transylvania, 
Bukovina and the Banat, on which was inscribed " Long 
live the King of all the Roumanians," " Long live the 
King of Greater Roumania." The remainder of the day 
was given up to a rapturous reception of the new troops, 
in the Place Unirea, under the statue of Prince Cuza, the 
first Prince of United Roumania, and also under that of 
their great hero of earlier days, Michael the Brave. 
Stirring orations to a great concourse of people were 



AT BAY 



delivered by the Prime Minister, Take Jonesco, Octavian 
Goga, the great writer, the Gabrielle d'Annunzio of the 
Roumanian race, and Iorga the historian. 

Over in Paris another ceremony was taking place 
testifying to the deep spirit of affectionate sympathy 
between the races. At the Sorbonne a great manifesta- 
tion, attended by the President of the Republic, M. Paul 
Deschanel, the President of the Chamber, the Ministers, 
members of the diplomatic corps, and representatives of 
the letters and arts of France, was held when the banner 
of Roumania's great fighting Prince, Stephen the Great, 
was handed over to M. Lahovary, the Roumanian 
Minister in Paris. 

Stephen, Roumania's national hero, stands for all that 
is valorous in their history, and the manner in which the 
banner fell into the hands of the French was almost that 
of a chance discovery. 

During the fighting of the Expeditionary Army of 
Salonica the French occupied Mount Athos, and found in 
the Bulgarian convent of Zographo the banner of the 
great King, who in 1475 repulsed the Turks, and so saved 
Moldavia. Though all the monasteries on famous Mount 
Athos were left intact by the French, in marked contrast 
to the spirit of a so-called Kultur displayed by their 
Hunnish foes, General Sarrail considered that a Bulgarian 
institution was the last place for the banner of the splendid 
and valorous King to rest, and it was accordingly sent to 
France for presentation to the Roumanian authorities. 

The banner, which is still in good preservation, is of 
velvet richly embroidered, and represents St. George, 
Roumania's patron Saint, seated, armed and crowned by 
two angels, one of whom hands him a sword and the 



244 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 

other a shield. Lying beneath his feet is a three-headed 
dragon, which has been cut down before his throne. 

In thanking the President, M. Lahovary mentioned his 
country's eternal gratitude to France, who had under- 
stood and encouraged all her efforts, and spoke of his 
country's struggle to preserve her own nationality long 
before anything had been heard of the " principle of 
nationalities." Neither France nor Roumania were 
asking for annexation, all they asked was the redemption 
of brothers and sons from a pitiless foreign yoke. 

* * * * 

King Ferdinand took a great step forward when 
addressing his troops at the front, he promised drastic 
constitutional reforms, the necessity for which had been 
felt in the country for nearly twenty years. Various 
attempts at reform had been made by different Govern- 
ments, but none of them had been successful in really 
improving the position of the peasantry. The reason for 
this was the inadequate representation of the great 
agricultural masses of the nation, the peasants being 
represented by only twelve members, whereas the land- 
owners had over 130 representatives. Naturally there 
was little chance of the claims of the peasantry being 
effectively secured. 

When war was declared and the King summoned the 
nation to arms, a magnificent rally was the response, not 
a single peasant failed, and when disasters followed 
quickly upon each other and the whole nation reeled 
under the crisis of the retreat, most of the peasants 
followed the army, boys even of thirteen and fourteen 
joining the colours with a wonderful ardour of devotion. 
Some of the big landowners, officers of the reserve, did 



AT BAY 



245 



not, however, show the same fidelity to their country, and 
under pretext of disagreement with the foreign policy of 
the Government, remained behind with the enemy. 
Happily the number of these contemptibles was small. 

The loyalty and devotion of the peasants to the king- 
dom could no longer go unrewarded, and both Chamber 
and Senate have accepted the principle of universal 
suffrage — a great advance from the archaic system of 
representation by the Electoral Colleges which had 
hitherto prevailed. 

In addition to this the King also placed large estates 
belonging to the Crown for disposal amongst the peasantry 
who had splendidly faced every horror and hardship 
without flinching. Further large grants of land were 
voted by the Government to be divided among those who 
had taken part in the war. 

Much, however, still remains to be done, for events all 
over the world have roused the democratic spirit, and in 
view of what the peasants have done for Roumania during 
the centuries, they are entitled to still wider reforms. 
* * * * 

By early summer the freshly reorganized Roumanian 
Army was ready for action. Their plan was to pierce the 
Austro-German line between the Danube and the Mol- 
davian Carpathians, with the object of striking south of 
Focsani in the direction of Ploeshti and Bucharest ; 
deliver the capital, release the oil-fields from the hands 
of the enemy and with the help of the Allies' Army at 
Salonica threaten Bulgaria and Turkey. 

Their offensive, starting in the Susitza and Putna 
valleys, met with the most brilliant results. In the course 
of a few days they advanced over twelve miles on a 



246 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 



twenty-mile front, storming positions of great strength, 
capturing five thousand prisoners and nearly a hundred 
guns. Unfortunately the Russian armies north were 
showing their disorganization by abandoning positions 
without putting up any defence. This affected the 
Russian armies in Roumania fighting in the Carpathians, 
who fell back also, rendering an invasion of Podolia and 
Bessarabia more than probable. The position became so 
threatening that it was found necessary for the Rou- 
manians to abandon their offensive and to despatch a 
considerable number of their troops to support and rally 
the Russian forces — rather like a plucky minnow trying 
to support a whale — but history had shown once before 
what powerful help this little nation had been to the raw 
Colossus in the Russo-Turkish war, and turned then 
what had looked like a rout into a victory. 

The enforced change in the plans of the Roumanian 
general staff was an opportunity of which the Archduke 
commanding the Northern Austro-German forces was 
not slow in availing himself, and he at once attacked along 
the weakened point between the Trotus and Oituz valleys 
towards Ocna, and also along the Focsani-Marasesti rail- 
way. It was a twofold thrust, primarily to cut the rail- 
way line to Galatz and render it and Reni in Russia 
valueless, and secondly to deprive Roumania of every 
source of contact with Russia. 

The Roumanians put up a desperate resistance, re- 
peatedly counter-attacking, and capturing another two 
thousand prisoners and several guns. During fourteen 
days' fierce fighting they had to fall back a few miles, 
but not before they had the satisfaction of knowing that 
the enemy had used up fourteen divisions, which were 



AT BAY 247 

known to have sustained severe losses. Immediately 
after this Mackensen launched his offensive on August 8th, 
beginning on a front of over 25 kilometres between the 
Sereth and the Gabrantzi mountain range. He attacked 
with twelve divisions, ten German and two Austrian, not 
including his German Alpine troops. The fourth Russian 
Army offered but slight resistance, and he made rapid 
progress until the First Roumanian Army opportunely 
appeared upon the scene. At the same time, and with 
a view to facilitating Mackensen's task, the First 
Austrian Army — one of the group of armies commanded 
by General Rohr, and under the supreme direction 
of the Archduke Joseph — received orders on August 
nth to launch an offensive in the direction of Onesti 
on the river Trotus ; the aim of the two offensives, 
the one under Mackensen and the other under General 
Rohr, being to enclose in a great ' pincer ' movement the 
Roumanian Army, and more especially the Second Army 
of Averescu. 

Both commanders made almost superhuman efforts to 
advance, but the Roumanians, fighting superbly, with- 
stood without faltering the most ferocious artillery bom- 
bardment and massed attacks carried out with the 
extreme of violence by Bavarians and Germans, with a 
resistance and bravery of unparalleled ardour. 

For ten days and nights the enemy hammered at the 
wall formed by the Roumanian Army. Regardless of 
losses he repeatedly sent wave after wave of massed 
infantry which broke in front of the splendid Roumanian 
defence. The valley was a tomb for thousands of the 
enemy, and the superb fighting powers shown by the 
Roumanians, who had sworn to die rather than be 



248 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 

captured, drew a well-deserved and spontaneous tribute 
of admiration from the foreign officers who witnessed 
their valour and stern obstinacy of defence. The young 
officers, barely a month out of the schools, showed un- 
surpassable bravery, and like the splendid young Cadets 
during the Russian Revolution, fought like tigers. 

One of the most splendid episodes of this gallant little 
nation's fight to the death for the few miles of soil left 
them, was the magnificent courage and devotion of the 
battalions of women volunteers. Think of it, we women 
of the Western world ! Many of us are doing splendid 
work over here in factory, canteen and hospital, but out 
there these brave women, sweethearts and sisters of the 
sturdy peasant soldier, battled for everything that meant 
sheer existence, with a heroism beyond all words. They 
fought beside their men in the front lines with a dash, 
such an unshakable fury of heroism that the Army Com- 
manders declared that it had the effect of doubling the 
attacking value of the regiments ! 

The Germans were determined to force the passage of 
the river and had been ordered to cross ; no matter at 
what cost. Under a terrific bombardment supported by 
dense waves of asphyxiating gases, three crack German 
divisions attacked a single Roumanian division which 
was defending the bridge at Cosmesti. 

Their defence was heroic and, in the words of an on- 
looker, " these peasant soldiers who had to face much 
superior German forces, which had on their side the 
advantage of surprise, is not surpassed by anything in 
the deeds either of the Belgians or Serbians." They 
fought unflinchingly " though whole regiments were 
decimated by the fire of the German guns and machine 



AT BAY 



249 



guns. Officers and soldiers died in their positions, 
refusing to withdraw or surrender. The French Captain 
Vernueil, attached to a Roumanian regiment, lost his life 
fighting with his Roumanian comrades." 1 

The final German effort was launched in the presence 
of King Ferdinand and Prince Carol who shared the risks 
of battle with their soldiers who fought so dauntlessly 
that the enemy fled in disorder. Many prisoners, both 
Germans and Austrians, were paraded before the King 
next day when the goose step was entirely lacking, and a 
more dejected-looking lot of " Proud Prussians " have 
been rarely seen ! 

This great battle, which lasted for nearly three weeks, 
was one of the most bloody of this great war, and without 
doubt it was by far the most important of all the Rou- 
manian campaign. 

* * * * 

Meanwhile in the conquered Roumanian territory the 
enemy wreaked the full limit of his vengeance on the un- 
happy people. Enough has leaked out to show us — 
though it would seem well-nigh impossible — that the 
Germans have outdone their Bulgar allies in ferocity and 
ruthless oppression ; for they have added to the treacher- 
ous savagery of the Bulgar temperament all the ferocity 
of a scientific brutality. 

The horrors committed are a tale that as yet cannot 
be told. Dimly we know it as one of the most hideous 
events of the war. Far worse than the occupation of 
Belgium, for over there in the guarded silence of these 
conquered Eastern lands the dead, the tortured, the 
dying can tell no tales, send forth no anguished cry for 

1 The Times correspondent with the Roumanian Army. 



250 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 



help. Things axe done over there by these " wolfish, 
bloody, ravenous " races that can only be matched in 
hell. 

They may be proud of their unique claim — the declasse 
amongst the nations — for it can never be eclipsed ! Such 
an appalling chain of cruelty and destruction will for 
ever mark them in the future as the pariahs among the 
civilized Christian world, and should bar them for a 
century at least from the circle of the civilized nations. 
No human law or divine, no faintest sense of honour or 
chivalry has penetrated their natures or affected their 
systematically planned, and thoroughly organized orgy 
of lust, cruelty and destruction. They have reduced 
savagery to a science, which is inculcated in them from 
birth. 

As the men go forth to war their Kaiser bids them 
" Give no quarter, take no prisoners ; let all who fall 
into your hands be at your mercy.' ' A token is hung 
round their necks — as if in mockery of the Crucifix, the 
holy symbol, that imperishably divine and wholly pity- 
ing figure worn round the necks of the believers. This 
calls upon them to " Strike your enemy dead ; the day 
of judgment will ask no questions." No — no questions — 
break all the commandments, violate the terrified and 
tortured maidens, hack to death the mother with her un- 
born babe, spit the little ones on to the point of the 
bayonet, murder the helpless, destroy, lie, poison and 
mutilate ! Your War Lord the all Highest, he will inter- 
vene for all you may do with the Lord of Creation, his 
" unconditional and avowed ally " on whom he " can 
absolutely rely." 

They brag of their mailed fist, their shining sword with 



- 



AT BAY 



251 



strepitous fervour, and boast of their song of hate. Surely 
it is time to apologize to the shades of the ancient Huns, 
who would revolt at siring such descendants. Truer 
words were never spoken than those in which Nietzsche 
has said that " every crime against culture that has 
been committed for a hundred years rests upon 
Germany." 1 

A German paper has thus described this war — the 
apogee of her civilization, that for which she has planned, 
plotted and schemed ! " Der Tag " — the vow, the toast, 
the purpose of this race ! 

" Ten million corpses : ten million men have ended. 
The flowing blood of these murdered men, ten million 
gallons steaming human blood, could substitute for a 
whole day the gigantic water masses of the Niagara. 

" All the rolling stock of the Prussian railways would 
not suffice to transport the heads only, all at once, of these 
ten million murdered men. 

" Civilization ! Make a chain of these ten million 
murdered murderers, placing them head to head and foot 
to foot, and you will have an uninterrupted line measuring 
ten thousand miles, a grave ten thousand miles long, en- 
compassing all Germany, winding itself through fields 
and woods, passing many a village and town, corpses 
here and there, corpses everywhere, along valleys, too, 
and rivers and seashore, ten thousand miles — not yards — 
a gigantic grave all round Germany. 

" Head to head, foot to foot, ten thousand miles of 
corpses ! Civilization ! " 

But a day must come, an aftermath must follow, 
" though the hand of God is holden, the lips of God are 
1 Ecce Homo. 



252 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 



still," and justice, though its face is hidden, is still en- 
throned, and 

" When this night is ended and when new days begin 
Bitterly shall your children pay for their father's sin. 
The eyes of all shall mock you, lips as you pass be dumb : 
Into the paths you follow no other guest shall come ; 
You shall sit at the feast unfriended, you shall go from the 

house unstayed, 
You shall be on the earth a stranger till the debt that you 
owe is paid." 1 

The Teuton and the Bulgar are the only two among 
the world nations who have deified Hate, enthroning it as 
a national worship, a hymn voiced by millions in prayer. 

The German Hymn is well known, its High Priest was 
honoured and profusely decorated by the All Highest. 
Here is its twin soul, composed by the Bulgarian, Ivan 
Arnaudoff, who calls himself the Pindar of Bulgaria ! 

" Let not one stone rest upon another, let not one child 
suck from its mother's breast, not one old man lean upon 
his grandson's shoulder. 

"Throw their skulls to the dogs, let there remain on 
the ruins your hand has sown only skeletons and ghosts. 

" See a decrepit old man dragging his miserable years 
in an effort to cheat death and your zeal. 

" Fell him under your boot, tear out his troubled eyes 
with a fork." 

As to the unmentionable atrocities destined for the 
women and young men they cannot be printed. 

Is it possible that a people who voice such a diabolical 
creed should be allowed to exist in Europe ; should be 
permitted a place in the civilized portion of the globe ? 
They should be transported to the distant steppes from 

1 Harold Begbie. 




AT BAY 



253 



which they migrated — Europe is no place for them and 

their kind. 

* * * * 

In the Roumanian territory occupied by these tyrants 
incredible hardships were inflicted on their victims, and a 
well-known Roumanian writer told me that by February, 
1917, over 60 per cent of the military prisoners had suc- 
cumbed to starvation, cruelty and neglected disease, 
while the lot of the civilian was equally bad. Both alike 
had to work within reach of the Allies' artillery ten hours 
a day, and were flogged when they fell down from lack of 
food and exhaustion. Teams of ten to fourteen men were 
harnessed to the heavy transport carts and ploughs, 
instead of oxen, and every one from twelve to sixty-five 
years old had to work on the roads, Sundays included, 
without pay or food. 

A huge levy of ten million pounds was demanded from 
the occupied districts ; Bucharest paid three million 
four hundred and forty thousand pounds, while the 
country districts, from which the richer people had fled 
and only the struggling peasants remained, had to pay 
between them the crushing burden of eight million 
pounds. All cattle, grain, clothing, bedding, iron and 
copper utensils were confiscated and the peasants had to 
buy back at extortionate prices their own maize, given 
them in daily rations of eight ounces for an adult and 
three ounces for children — a starvation pittance for the 
support of a cruelly over-worked existence. 

The sown fields were all destroyed by these scientific 
Jahoos to a distance of thirty-five miles around the once 
prosperous town of Braila, and information only is lack- 
ing as to what further destruction and wicked desolation 



254 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 



has been perpetrated in the more distant territory from 
which no word can come. Hostages such as the Attorney 
General of the Supreme Court of Bucharest and others of 
high social standing were made to work at most degrading 
tasks and publicly insulted and jeered at. 

The women and girls were violated and removed from 
any protection their family could afford them. In order 
to provide the conqueror with comfortable quarters the 
people were herded together, as many as thirty occupying 
one small close room such as are to be found in the 
cottages. The people looked like ghosts, and when one of 
the villages was recaptured and General Vaitoiano com- 
manding the 2nd Roumanian Army Corps entered it, the 
poor wretches, faint and weeping, prostrated themselves 
in gratitude before him, hardly believing the torments of 
the long eight months' nightmare were over. 

* * * * 

And the cry goes up all over Europe, and far beyond : 
" Why must such things be ? Why must the world be 
drenched in blood and tears to feed the pride of a would- 
be world conqueror, the insensate ambition, the lust of 
power, of greed for dominion of a megalomaniac and a 
military caste who have lit a fire that has devoured the 
world with flame and torture ? 

And what words can depict the scenes of savagery and 
destruction ; the suffering and atrocities they have let 
loose on a world of peace and beauty ! 
/ Montenegro swept out, Serbia annihilated, Roumania 
1 devastated ! The crowds of broken, famished peasantry 
herded together, breeding disease and madness and worked 
like slaves ! Those also of Belgium 1 Torn from their 
\ homes and sent to labour in exile, starved, decimated by 



AT BAY 



255 



consumption, they are cast out to die when the uttermost 
ounce of sweated labour has been squeezed out of their 
poor emaciated bodies ! 

Hell at the Front — Misery in the rear ! 

The millions of starving prisoners, ill-treated, abused, 
bludgeoned or kicked to death. The foul poison gases, 
germ traps, plots, lies ; everything that is remorseless, 
diabolical ! 

The thunder of the moaning sea seems to roll out a 
requiem across the lone wastes, for the souls of the women 
and children sent to their death below by the German 
chivalry of the deep ! The mournful sighing of the 
evening breeze, whimpering eerily, brings the faint sound 
of ghostly cries, from murdered and bombed little ones. 
The slow merciless drip-drip of rain — the bitter tears of 
wives and mothers. The shuddering dirge of autumnal 
gales echoing drearily, chants the terrible tale of the 
frenzied struggles, the piteous sobs of the girls — the 
womanhood of outraged and desolated lands. 

And over it all is heard the faint but never-ceasing rustle 
of Passing Souls — the ghostly tread of warriors — that 
mighty host of valiant, wonderful Youth, passing . . . 
ever passing ... offering the one supreme sacrifice ! 
Those brave spirits who " poured out the red sweet wine 
of youth, gave up the years to be, of work, of joy and that 
unhoped serene that men call age," who send forth their 
mute message from the wrecked and desolated lands they 
died to save. 

" 0 you, that have rain and sun, 
Kisses of children and of wife, 
And the good earth to tread upon, 

And the mere sweetness that is life, 
Forget not us who gave all these 
For something dearer and for you ! " 



256 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 



Dimly in our little dusty civilian souls we comprehend 
the superb chivalry, the glory and fearlessness of those 
who are stemming the flood of brigandage and barbarism. 
Surely we can follow, if we only will, the gleaming torch of 
faith and courage their souls bear forth so proudly as 
they pass into the trembling Beyond ! 

And the Great Being, shrouded, enigmatical, broods 
before the Mirror. The wild tide of struggling life blurs 
it in swirling mists ; brief shafts of light, of glorious 
doings, clear it for a moment. We think we see an answer 
to the Eternal question. 

But the mists close down again ; the shapes of life, the 
forms of good and evil move to and fro, striving, struggling. 
New souls come forth, born amid the welter and stress. 
Creation never falters, never tires. 

Far above, and beyond the grim reality of earth, with 
its "haggard ugliness, its divine beauty, its depths of 
Death and Life," a peace, a stillness reigns. 

The veiled Being, mute, inscrutable, waits and 
watches. Man's struggles his passions, his hopes, are 
but as a moment in the vast Eternity of Time. 



CHAPTER XIV 



AND AFTER? 

Who counsels peace at this momentous hour. 
When God has given deliverance to the oppress'd 
And to the injured power ? 

Who counsels peace, when Vengeance like a flood 
Rolls on, no longer now to be repress'd ; 
W T hen innocent blood 

From the four corners of the world cries out 

For justice upon the accursed head ; 

W T hen freedom hath her holy banners spread 

Over all nations, now in one just cause 

United ; when with one sublime accord 

Europe throws off the yoke abhorred, 

And loyalty and faith and ancient laws 

Follow the avenging sword ? 

Woe, woe to England ! woe and endless shame, 

If this heroic land 

False to her feelings and unspotted fame, 
Hold out the Olive to the Tyrant's hand. 

Robert Southey. April, 1814. 

V H ^HESE heroic words were written a little over a 
! century ago when, as to-day, great issues were 
hanging in the balance and the voice of the 
battling peoples were called upon to declare 
for the destiny of their children and their children's 
children. Like a bugle call they ring out again over the 
worl4, over a great continent writhing under a far worse 
torture and tyranny than ever Napoleon brought to their 
forefathers. 

Russia which had stood in the eyes of the world as a 
Hercules, an embodiment of vast potential power inert 
perhaps, but by her righteous will and the help of her 
s 257 



258 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 

Allies slowly gathering a great momentum of adequately 
equipped force — help given her in large measure by the 
sweat and financial support of millions of Allied workers 
beyond the seas — was now stricken with paralysis. 

The great Revolution of March which had started with 
such high hopes, such proud dreams of a free, stable and 
Liberal democracy had fallen a victim to the sinister 
bribery and promises of a pro-German intrigue. Torn by 
civil war and anarchy, Russia as an organized State was 
ceasing to exist. Rapidly disintegrating she was slipping 
back to her position in the Middle Ages. 

Lenin was in power and was being pressed by the 
German negotiators to barter the nation's splendid 
patrimony, to detach great provinces of the Russian 
State, to sacrifice the millions of lives laid down in defence 
of them and the most honourable principles of inter- 
national faith, to an ignoble surrender. What bitterness of 
spirit must the real heart of patriotic Russia feel — a great 
voiceless multitude — as impotent and helpless under an 
anarchical and autocratic Government she sees her honour 
being dragged in the dust at the bidding of the Hun ! 

" Russia," as one of her dreamers said, " led the way/* 

" Chaos, anarchy, plunder, terrorism for the hour are 
masters in that huge amorphic, unstable, race. Let us 
not suppose because it is so extravagant that it means 
nothing, and will soon be nothing but a hideous memory 
— wild, impossible, anti-Social as Bolshevism is, remember 
that it is the delirious orgy of a passion which is very 
real, very wide, very deep — which has many forms and 
in some form has an inevitable future." 1 

The news cf the fall of Kerensky had fallen upon 

1 Frederic Harrison, Fortnightly Rev itiv, Jan., 1918. 




AND AFTER ? 



259 



Roumania like a thunderbolt. With the fearful presage 
of impending doom, with the biting memory of the recent 
terrible defection which had contributed so greatly to the 
tragic loss of three-quarters of her kingdom, she realized 
only too bitterly what her abandonment by Russia would 
mean, and how completely she lay at the mercy of that 
country's good will and faith. 

Notwithstanding the welter of anarchy, Kerensky had 
certainly represented a sense of honour and a certain 
stable authority ; and though too weak, too visionary a 
nature to dam the overwhelming flood he had released — 
now overspreading the country and submerging great 
landmarks, or to rebuild the tottering edifice of the State 
disappearing amongst the waters — he at any rate was a 
patriotic and honourable man, faithful to the integrity 
and obligations of his country. 

At first General Tcherbatscheff, the Commander-in- 
Chief of the Russian Forces on the Roumanian and 
Southern Russian Front, had been able to some partial 
extent to keep the extreme virus of rot and desertion 
from affecting the troops under his command. But by 
November this semblance of order and allegiance had dis- 
appeared, and Roumania had to face the fact of the 
complete collapse of the Russian armies. 

Like a gigantic wave thousands of disorderly Russian 
soldiers were deserting the front and streaming homewards 
to swell the starving mass of anarchical and disorganized 
peasantry. 

" Outrageous as a sea, dark, wasteful wild, 
Up from the bottom, turned by furious winds and surging waves." 

They swept over the country towards the east, and the 
utter disorganization of these enormous crowds of rene- 
gade troops was unspeakable. Day after day they poured 



26o ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO DAY 



back in a steady unceasing stream, sixty thousand passing 
through a station in one day alone ! They swarmed on 
the trains till they were literally hidden under them ; 
outside and in they hung like flies : the roof, steps, plat- 
forms and on the engine itself, and even in the spaces 
between the wagons were utilized by putting boards 
across the buffers. So desperate were they in their crazy 
flight, so utterly disorganized, that they travelled abso- 
lutely empty handed, having discarded and cast aside 
rifles, kit, everything ! Guns, munitions and vast stores of 
equipment of every description, and worth many millions of 
pounds, were simply left for the Germans to take. . . . What 
an inglorious flight ! What a pusillanimous surrender ! 

They showed the utmost bitterness and hostility to 
their Allies the Roumanian soldiers, who stuck loyally 
to their trenches refusing to join in the mad Bolshevik 
dance of anarchy and terrorism, and General Tcherbat- 
cheff was threatened that if he did not resign he would 
incur the same butchery and death as had been meted 
out to General Dukhonin. 

This wholesale desertion was uncovering the flanks of 
the Roumanian armies — the tiny little heart of desolate 
land on which some millions of half-starved and fugitive 
people were existing — there is no other word for their 
terrible plight — was being exposed, and despair was 
knocking at its very portal. Do we realize here in 
England the hideous situation she found herself forced to 
lace, the terrible decision these Russian makers of a 
separate peace were compelling her to take ! Forced by 
the ruthless clutch of tragic circumstances to sign the 
armistice imposed on her ! 

But the will of Russia does not imply that it is the will 



AND AFTER ? 



261 



of Roumania, and there is no Bolshevik poison as yet in 
the sturdy heroic Roumanian race. 

Yet what a bitter turn of the Wheel of Fate ! What a 
cruel sacrifice of all she held most dear, most precious I 
The resolute courage with which she had faced the 
calamity of the retreat, the loss of her country ; the 
Herculean efforts by which she had reorganized her 
decimated army, and with the spirit of her people surging 
up again, she had hoped to redeem the tragedy of the 
past ! The valour, the splendid fighting qualities dis- 
played in the brilliant offensive of the summer which had 
given her every reason to hope that they would be able 
to sweep forward and retake their capital ! 

All ! all ! all ! came crashing down like a house of 
cards ! Surrounded by four enemy powers — with flaming 
Russia behind — a Red Guard of terror and autocracy that 
would refuse her the sanctuary of retreat were she forced 
to retire, imagination could hardly conceive a ghastlier 
fate for the little kingdom. 

It was as if the whole of England had been forced to 
retreat to Inverness, and there in the bleak sparely 
cultivated north had to exist with little assurance of 
help and with further retreat denied them. 

How could the Allies help her — how was it possible to 
send her the troops needed to help her hold her fronts — 
replace the Russians deserting her ! How get the food, 
munitions, the vitally necessary supplies through the 
great disrupted Russian State — from farthest north to 
the distant south — when robbery, crime and anarchy 
were ruling supreme ! Few here realized the magnitude 
of the little nation's isolation, the difficulty of Allied help 
reaching her at this terrible moment. Little news came 



262 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 



through. The great heaving welter in Russia was a wall 
which shrouded the little nation completely. Pluck, 
bravery, courage ! She had them in plenty, but how were 
they to feed her starving people — maintain her armies ? 
Truly, God seemed to have turned His Face from them 
and their ancient prayer : " May God never inflict on the 
Roumanian the full measure of suffering he can endure " 
was being tested through and through to the deepest 
fibres of their natures. . . . 

* * * * 
Forced by the overwhelming crumbling of Russia, 

deserted by her quondam ally, isolated, stricken and 
beyond the reach of succour : surrounded by the savage 
menace of the plundering, blackmailing Powers, she has 
had to yield, under force majeure — and for the moment — 
to a tyrannical and infamously misnamed peace. 

And Austria, that swollen octopus gorged to the 
uttermost with the blood of those other suffering alien 
races she has sucked the soul and life from, greedily, 
covetously reaches out a writhing tentacle towards the 
life-stream of this land and with the Bulgar brood tears 
out the pulsing throat and heart — her port, her mountain 
ranges, her vast oil fields — -from the quivering victim. 

" The only alternative put before the unhappy country 
was immediate peace or complete obliteration from the 
map of Europe. If she did not conclude peace she would 
be divided up between Bulgaria on one side and Hungary 
on the other and extinguished from among the class of 
independent nations." 1 

Could a more relentless and savage fate be meted out 
under the hypocrisy of a so-called peace by ostensibly 

Christian Powers ? 

* * * * 

1 The Rt. Hon. A. J. Balfour. 



AND AFTER ? 



263 



But the Book of Ancient and Divine Wisdom has said : 
" Fear not them that kill the body but are not able to kill 
the soul," and those words ring out with never-dying 
conviction at a moment of national agony as this. 

Fear not — little nation ! Keep your hearts firm, your 
heads high. The civilized races have sworn that full 
impartial justice, justice done at every point and to every 
nation shall be meted out. 

However long the war may last the great free nations 
have said that they will stand by their faithful Allies in 
a spirit of immutable resolve until their territories are 
evacuated, and the redemption of their enslaved children 
is secured ; that they are fighting for " the principle of 
justice to all people and nations alike, and their right to 
live on equal terms of liberty and safety with one another 
whether they be strong or weak . . . and to the vindica- 
tion of this principle they are ready to devote their lives, 
their honour and everything they possess." 

Nothing else matters but this — to hold on to this aim 
and to grimly fight to the finish. A security for Europe 
impregnable and lasting is what we must have or die. 
Never, never again must this hydra-headed monster of 
unimaginable massacre and destruction, this hateful 
thing of Kaiserism and Militarism be allowed to raise its 
head and bathe the world in fire and blood again. The 
very dead send forth their message to endure to the end ! 

" They claim our weapons, not our tears, 
Dying they raised a single plea 
That grimly strong we would avenge 
And crown their grave with victory." 

And Roumania who has battled so superbly against 
overwhelming odds, under difficulties of discouragement, 



264 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 



isolation, treachery, starvation and disease which v^e 
here in our strength and security can barely imagine, 
must never, never be forgotten. For her as well as for 
Serbia and Montenegro our word must be made good to 
the uttermost, and our debt is all the more binding 
because their fate — submerged and tortured under the 
doom of an age — has been so terrible. Take Jonesco has 
said : "In Roumania we are faithful to the Allies and 
our word. Our sufferings come last." 

And indeed as one looks back through the centuries at 
the heroic struggle made by the race, it is their sufferings 
borne so uncomplainingly, their extraordinary tenacity 
and vigour to endure that is the truest and most wonder- 
ful surety for their destiny and future. Sometimes van- 
quished, sometimes victorious, crushed or hopeful — all 
has joined in forming their indomitable soul. With 
breasts bared to the fury of warfare, struggling to defend 
their soil, sweating to pay the tribute extorted from 
them ; dying only to rise again, persevering and tenacious 
both for work and resistance to alien influence, their 
generous, tender, tolerant soul — which one might well 
suppose might have become bitter, cruel, brutal under 
such long tyranny — only clasped their national unity, 
their faith, their hope in their destiny more closely. 
Valiant, hopeful, steadfast, what might have they not 
become had peace been their portion ! 

With heads erect they have withstood all oppression, 
overcome all tragedies. Bending to the storm, bruised, 
crushed or bent — they have never yet been broken. 
Their kingly device : " By ourselves " founded after the 
War of Independence in 1877, is an omen of endurance, 
hope and ultimate redemption for our distant, stricken , 
but heroic little ally — Roumania. 



INDEX 



Abdul Hamid, Sultan, 112 
Acarnania, 99 
Adam, Ion, poet, 45 
Aehrenthal, Count, 136 
Agrarian questions, 69 ; reforms, 

62 ; revolts, 69 ; system, 13 
Agriculture, 70 
Akermann, convention of, 61 
Albania, 99 

Alexandri, Vasile, poet, 40, 66 
Aluta, 229 
Amusements, 17 
Anastasiu, general, 173, 229 
Angeel, poet, 44 
Antivari, 99 

Apollodorus, architect, 49 
Apulam (Karlsburg), 50 
Arges, river, 103, 174 
Arimoni (Wallachs), 90, 99 
Army organisation, 67 
Arnaudoff, Ivan, Bulgarian poet, 
252 

Art : Byzantine, ecclesiastical, 
and Venetian influence, 29, 31 ; 
mystic symbolism, 30 ; art 
treasures in the royal palaces, 
25 

Arz, Austrian general, 232 
Asian, general, 163 
Athanaric, Visigothic King, 31 
Athos, mount, 29, 243 
Augustovo, 231 

Aurelian, Roman emperor ; aban- 
dons Dacia, 50 

Austrian offers refused, 138 ; 
Austrian schemes, 113, 114 ; 
ultimatum to S rbia, 130 



Avars, 51 

Averescu, 163, 174, 187, 228, 238 
Azuga, 80 

Baba Dagh (mt.), 82 
Balkan War (191 3), in 
Banat, the, 241 
Bassarab, 56, 79 
Basta, Austrian general, 55 
Beaumont and Fletcher (quoted), 
75 

Belgrade, 141 

Belief in nature-spirits, 88 

Berchtold, Count, 130 

Berthelot, head of French military 

mission, 195, 239 
Bessarabia, 50, 59, 69, 109, 120, 

129, 162 
Beza, U., Vlach writer, 43 
Bezpapovtsi, religious sect, 83 
Biberstein, Baron von, 136 
Birth ceremonies, 19 
Bishops and clergy, 9 
" Black earth," 70, 81 
Bocitoare (professional wonie 1 

mourners), 18 
Bohm-Ermolli, Austrian general, 

139 

Boyars, 35, 56, 60, 69, 97 

Brad (branch of fir-tree), symbol 

of fruitfulness, 17 
Braila, 70, 82, 176, 232 
Bratiano, 72, 139, 141, 142, 163 
Briand, M., 199 

Briaulmont, Belgian engineer, 194, 
234 

Brussilof, 161, 170, 197 



266 ROUMANIA : YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 



Bucharest (Bucuresci), 23, 33, 184 
Buda-Pesth, 55 
Bugeacul, 59 

Bukovina, 50, 54, 59, 120, 161 

Bulgaria, in, 112 

Bulow, Prince, 136 

Burian, Baron, 134 

Bussche, von dem, Baron, 136, 143 

Buzaii, river, 53, 176 

Byzantine influence, 94 

Cafes, 33 

Calusare (national dance), 18 
Camulung, 81 
Cantacuzene, Michael, 159 
Cantacuzene, Sherban, 57 
Capa (sheepskin coat), 101 
Caracullas (Caracalla), Roman 

emperor, 50 
Caraculu, 173 
Caragiale, dramatist, 42 
Carmen Sylva, queen of Rou- 

mania, 64 
Carol (Charles of Hohenzollern), 

King of Roumania, 63, 67, 73, 

109, 130, 132, 137 
Carp, politician, 136 
Carpathians, 78, 120 
Cerna, poet, 41 
Cernavoda, 165, 167 
Chamber of Deputies, 72 
Charles of Hohenzollern. See Carol 
Charms and spells, 7 
Chendi, literary critic, 44 
Clopnitza (monastery gate), 31 
Cobza (kind of lute), 6 
Cogalniceanu, 127 
Collindes (carols), 21 
Cone a (tiara), 15 

Constantine, King of Greece, 141 
Constanza, 71, 165, 169, 176 
Convents, 31 
Cosbuc, poet, 43 
Cosmesti bridge, 248 
Costume, national, 14 
Cotroceni palace, its eld stone 
crosses, 26, 27, 143 



Coutzo-Vlachs, 99 
Cozia, 79 

Crainicianu, general, 136 
Craiova, 172 
Creanga, prose writer, 42 
j Crete, 91 

\ Culcer, general, 163 

! Curtea de Arges, 79 ; legend of 

{ cathedral, 66 

j Cuza, Alexander, first Roumanian 
! prince, 62, 242 ; forced to ab- 
| dicate, 63 
! Czernin, Count, 130, 134 
Czernovitz, 232 

j Dacia, 49, 90 ; its ancient extent, 

I 50 

Dacians (Getae), 47 ; their re- 
ligious beliefs, 48 

Daco-Romans, 90, 121 

Danube, 77, 120 ; Delta restored 
to Roumania by treaty of 
Paris, 61 

Darius, 48 

Decebalus, 48 

Declaration of neutrality, 133, 
135 ; of war on Austria, 159 

Delbriick, Hans (quoted), 117 

Denys, monk, rules of Byzantine 
art, 29 

Deschanel, Paul, 243 

Dimbovitza, 24, 103, 176 

Dobrudja, 47, 69, 81-83, 85, 112, 
120, 140, 163 

Dogs, 7 

Doina (popular ballad), 4 
Doja, Georghe, 122 
Domitian, 49 
Dorna Vatra, 232 
Dragalina, general, 172 
Dragosch, 51 
Dukhobors, 83 
Dulcigno el Bassan, 99 

Easter celebrations, 17 
Eastern question, 108, 128 



INDEX 



267 



Egypt, German designs on, 117 
Elassona, 99 

Emancipation of peasants, 62 
Eminesco, Michael, poet, 40 
Enesco, musician, 42 
England, earliest relations with, 
75 

Enver Bey, 112 
Epictetus (quoted), 229 
Eugene, Prince, 53 
Euxine (Black Sea), 47 
Evil eye, 20 

Falkenhayn, German general, 170, 

I 73» I 76, 200, 231 
Fasting, 14 

Ferdinand of Coburg, King of 

Bulgaria, 111, 141, 165 
Ferdinand of Hohenzollern, King 

of Roumania, 67, 137, 143, 240, 

241 ; his promised reforms, 244 
Filipescu, 136, 141 
Filot (Scandinavian cross), 27 
Focsani, 233, 245 
Folk-lore, 20 
Foia (petticoat), 11 
Franz Ferdinand, murder of, 115, 

130 

Franz Joseph, Austrian Emperor, 
114, 126 

French influence, 34, 97 ; military 
mission, 195, 239 

French revolution, 61 

Fundank (guest room in monas- 
tery), 31 

Funerals, 19 

Furstenberg, Prince, 136 

Gabrantzi mts., 247 

Galatz, 70, 233 

Garleano, poet, 45 

German policy and influence, 1 10 ; 
secret treaty, no, 129, 132 ; 
intrigues in Turkey, 112 ; Mittel 
Europa policy, 115 ; proposed 
canal between Danube and 



North Sea, 116; propaganda, 
136 

Gerok, general, 232 

Getae (Dacians), 47 ; religious 

beliefs, 48 
Ghika, Gregory, 59 
Gipsies (Tsigan), 6, 102 
Giurgevo, 173 
Gladstone on Austria, 123 
Goga, Octavian, poet, 44, 243 
" Golden Horde," 83 
Goluchowski, Count, 136 
Gortchakoff (quoted), Prince, 105 
Gothic art remains, 31 
Goths, 51, 92 

Government and political parties, 
72 

Grain, great production of, 70 
" Grecoteiul," 95 
Greek influence, 56, 93 
Greek orthodox church, 9 
Griffiths, Sir John Norton, 1 76 
Grigoresco, artist, 42 
Gyimes Pass, 233 

Harebone, William, English mer- 
chant and traveller, 75 
Harvest-time, 7 
Hasdeu, historian, 90 
Hellenic influence, 93 
Hermannstadt, 164, 228 
Herodotus (quoted), 47 
Hora (national dance), 7 
Horez, 79 
Hospodars, 58 
Houses, 9 

Hungarian oppression in Transyl- 
vania, 124-126 
Huns, 51, 92 
Hunyady, John, 53 

Iliesco, general, 200 
Intellectual culture, 32 
Iosif, poet, 44 
" Iron Gates," 77, 173 
Isker, river, 77 



268 ROUMANIA: YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 



Jassy, 54, 79, 120, 220 
Jews in Roumania, 104 
Jonescu, Take, 72, 113, 124, 136, 
^ I4i> 243 

Jorga, historian, 43, 47, 243 

JostofJf, general, 165 

Julian the Apostate (quoted), 90 

Kaledin, 232 
Kara Orman, 16S 
Kerensky, 259 
Kiderlen-Wachter, 136 
Kilia, 77 

Kissileff, Count (quoted), 95 
" Knight's Castle," 78 
Kosmali, traveller (quoted), 97 
Kossovo, battle, 53 
Koula (old houses), 10 
Kovess, Austrian general, 232 
Kiihne, German general, 175, 224 
Kustendy (Kustendje). See Con- 
stanza 

Lahovary, 243 

Language, 34 ; a bastard Latin, 

50, 75, 121 
Larissa, 99 

Lauteri (gipsy troubadours), 6, 35 
Lechitsky, general, 161, 232 
Legislature, 72 
Lemberg, 139 
Lenin, 258 

Literature, 40 ; French influence, 
32 

Lithgow, William, English travel- 
ler, 75 
Lutsk (Luck), 232 

Macedonia, 99 

Mackensen, field-marshal, 138, 

165, 168, 200, 231, 247 
Madna Zana (water spirit), 88 
Magyars, 121, 122 
Maiorescu, Tito, critic, 42, 129 
Mamaliga (maize porridge), 14 
Mama padrtrii, 83 
Manesti, 224 



Manole, Mesturel (play), 65 

Marghiloman, 136 

Marie, Queen of Roumania, 27, 32 

Maros, river, 164 

Mazepa, S3 

Michael the Brave, 54, 242 
Milos, Serbian hero, 122 
Mineral wealth, 71 
Mira (fortune teller), 6 
Mircea, prince of Wallachia, 53 
Modern Greeks, 91, 93 
Moesia, 48 
Moeso-Latins, 90 
Momoloasa, 233 
Moldavia, 50, 52 
Molokans, sect, 83 
Monasteries, 31 
" Mosaic " Khazars, 105 
Muntenia (= Wallachia), 50 

Narev, 231 

National characteristics, 36, 89 
N avion (passage-money for the 

dead), 19 
Neaylovic, river, 175 
Negotiations with Russia, 138; 

with Bulgaria, 140 
Negrutzi, novelist, 42 
Nekrassoff, Cossack rebel, S3 

Ocna (Okna), 71, 246 

Oil-wells destroyed, 177-183 

Oituz valley, 246 

Old Believers, 83 

Old stone crosses, 32 

Onesti, 247 

Opinca (sandals), 14 

Origin of the Roumanians, 47 ; 
Dacian and Roman character- 
istics, 49 

Orsova, 229 

Osman Pasha, 68 

Ovid (quoted), 4S 

Padule, 79 

Pagan mythological ballads, 20 



INDEX 



269 



Pagan rites, survival of, 17-20 

Pan, 88 

Pan-pipes, 21 

Panaghia Ikon, 1 1 

Panselinos, Manuel, painter, 29 

Paris, treaty of (1856), 61 

Peasant women, 10, 39 

Peles, Castel, royal palace, 8o, 159 

Petroleum, 71 

Petrossa " Hen and Chickens,'' 30 
Phanariots, 57, 95 
Pindus, mt., 99 
Plato (quoted), 88 
Plaur (weed islands), 85 
Plevna, 68 

Pliny the elder (quoted), 47 
Pliny the younger (quoted), 49 
Ploesti, 176, 245 
Podolia, 246 
Pop a (priest), 8 
Popular songs, 20 
Population statistics, 123 
Povesta (legends), 17 
Prahova, 176 
Predeal, 229 

Presan, general, 163, 175, 22 S 
Press, freedom of the, 63 
Printing, 56 
Protopopoff, 196, 200 
Pruth, river, 60, 120, 220 
Przemysl, 139 
Putna valley, 245 

Radou Negrou (Rudolph the 

Black), 51, 81 
Rain festivals, 18 
Relics, 30 
Religious faith, 9 
Reni, 246 

Reorganisation of the army, 239 
Resboin (loom), 10 
Rohr, general, 247 
Roman influence, 90 
Roman roads, 50 

Roumania : area and geographi- 
cal position, 119; recognized 
as a kingdom (1881), 73 



I Roumanian place-names in Tran- 
sylvania, 122 

j Rosenau, old Saxon colony, 78 

; Rothen Thurm Pass, 50, 164, 229 
Royal Palace at Bucharest, 25 

J Rudolph the Black. See Radou 
Negrou 

j Rusalu, festival of the dead, 19 
j Russia, earliest relations with 
Roumania, 57 ; influence over 
i principalities, 61 ; ingratitude 
J for Roumanian help, 69 
\ Russian Revolution, 240, 258 

! Rustchuk, 198 

1 

■ Sadoveanu, writer, 42 
| St. George, waterway, 77 
i Sarrail, general, 199, 243 
j Salina, 77 

Salonika, its importance, 115, 131; 
; great Jewish centre, 106 
. Salt, 71 

Scenery, 76, 79 

Senate, 72 
j Serbia, guardian of the East, 118 
j Serai evo, 130 
I Sereth, 200, 224, 233 

Shepherd life, 21 

Silistria, 69, 140, 165 

Sinaia, 80, 132, 159 
j Sistova, 198 
! Sixtus IV, Pope, 53 
j Slav influence, 93 

Slavs, 51 

Sobieski, 53 

Soldiery, 229 

Sosescu, general, 175 

Soutzo, Michel, 97 

Stana, 101 

Stefan - al - Mare (Stephen the 

Great), prince of Moldavia, 53 ; 

Rcumania's national hero, 243 ; 

his banner found in Bulgarian 

convent, 243 
I Stina (mountain-hut), 21 
j Striu valley, 228 
! Stuermer, Baron, 196, 200 



2 7 o ROUMANIA: YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 



Sturdza, Demetrius, 137 
Superstitions, 20 
Susitza valley, 245 
Swastika, 27 

Tannenberg, 231 
Tarjul Jiu, 229, 233 
Tartars in Dobrudja, 83 
Tcherbatcheff, general, 242, 259, 
260 

Tchinivnik (official), 69 

Teleajen, 176 

Timber, 71 

Timok, river, 78 

Tisza, Count, 123 

Tolgj^es Pass, 164 

Tombstones, 32 

Torn os Pass, 164 

Torzburg Pass, 229 

Trajan, 48 ; his services to Dacia, 

50 ; column, 49 ; wall, 82 
Transylvania, 43, 50, 120-123, 161 
Travelling, Roumanian fondness 

for, 100 
Treaty of Bucharest, 140 
Tricala, 99 
Trotus valley, 246 
Tsellinga (patriarch), 101 
Tulcea, 82, 232 

Turnu Rosu. See Rothen Thurm 
Pass 

Turnu Severin, 63 
Turtukai, 165 



Underground mud huts, 10 
Ungheni, 237 

Union of Moldavia and Wallachia P 

61 

Universal suffrage, 245 

Vasile Lupu (Basil the Wolf), hi* 

cruel code of laws, 56 
Verciorova (Kazan), 77 
Verdun, 237 
Vineyards, 70 
Vlachs, 90 
Voinesti, wyter, 42 
Voivodes, 79 

Voltaire's works banned, 97 

Wallachia, 5, 50-53, 121, 172, 232 
Wallachs, 99-101 
Winter in the Carpathians, 225 
Wodna Zena (water spirit), 18 
Weddings, 17 

Women, 37 ; fighting volunteers 
248 ; independent position, 15 

Xenopol, historian, 42, 53 

Yantra, river, 77 

i Zamolxis, 48, 90 
Zamphiresco, novelist, 42 
Zayonchovski, Russian general^ 
168 

Zografo, convent, 243 



